Bradley Rees, candidate for the Republican nomination for the 2010 5th-District Congressional race, was fined $100 in Lynchburg General District Court for possessing a concealed weapon without a permit.
Rees pleaded no contest, and stated that the violation occurred one month prior to his candidacy announcement on 25 June 2009 in Danville. Rees offered two guns to Lynchburg officers when they stopped Rees for an expired inspection rejection sticker. As officers asked Rees to look in his glove box for his vehicle registration, Rees told the officers that a loaded .380-caliber handgun was in the box.
Rees also told officers that he carried an unloaded .45-caliber semi-automatic handgun on the floor. Rees did not have a permit for carrying concealed weapons. Officers confiscated both weapons and Judge Harold Black ruled Wednesday that Rees must forfeit the guns.
In a press release posted on Rees’ political Web site, a statement was issued that Rees legally obtained and registered both his .380 and .45 caliber SEMI automatic handguns. “He submitted all criminal and mental background checks, complied with the requisite waiting periods, and even used a layaway plan to purchase the weapons.”
Both guns, according to the press release, were in the car as Rees did not want to keep the guns in the house without a gun safe. He has two small children, and he wanted to keep the guns away from “prying fingers.” Officer Eckstein did testify that Rees fully cooperated by informing the officers that the weapons were present.
This incident was fully reported by the Lynchburg News & Advance, and the Washington Examiner and WHSV 3 also carried the story.
Rees plans to continue his campaign to run against incumbent Tom Perriello in 2010. Rees’ main campaign thrust is the Fair Tax, as he is the former Lynchburg Area Community Coordinator for Americans For Fair Taxation, a group that backs H.R. 25 Fair Tax Act of 2009, which has resurfaced for the sixth consecutive congressional session in January this year. This bill proposes a flat tax rate of 23 percent as it also strives to repeal income, employment and estate and gift taxes.
Rees left that Lynchburg position in April to found and manage “Operation: Bullhorn,” a campaign to push the fair tax issue in Virginia’s 6th District. That same month, Rees spoke about the fair tax issue publicly at a Lynchburg ‘tea party’ in April. He defined his candidacy in Danville in June. According to Rees, he was caught with the concealed weapons in May.
Rees has used Twitter as his political platform for over a year as @reesforcongress.
Firearms concealed **out of reach** (e.g., in cases in the trunk) are not unlawfully concealed under Section 18.2-308; also, the Va. S, Ct. has said that a person without a permit to conceal does not violate 18.2-308 if she stores a gun in a glove box or console **contemporaneously with exiting the vehicle** (and presumably while promptly retrieving it when returning to the vehicle). See Pruitt v. Com. (2007) discussed at http://www.vachiefs.org/vapleac/vplb/3-1/feb08_call2.htm.
But permits to conceal are petty easy to get – just pay $50 and aply at your local circuit court, no SSN disclosure required, and fingerprints only required if your locality requires (most do not).