Virginia
Permanent URL for this collectionhttps://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/5544
Virginia
This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to Virginia. It supports research on the Commonwealth’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from the colonial period through statehood to the present.
- Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, colonial and militia records, maritime and manufacturing archives, agricultural and law-enforcement collections, and oral histories tied to Virginia people and places.
- Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the Commonwealth.
Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.
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Item type:Item, 1874-75 Va. Acts 282-83(1874)Ch. 239, § 6, sched. B(18): Included the value of all "rifles, muskets, and other fire-arms, bowie-knives, dirks, and all weapons of a similar kind" in list of taxable personal property, imposing a tax payable of 50 cents per 100 dollars of value.Item type:Item, The Charter and General Ordinances of the Town of Lexington 108 (1892)(1873)Prohibited the discharge of firearms and other weapons in public streets and alleys, punishable by a fine of one to five dollars.Item type:Item, The Charter and General Ordinances of the Town of Lexington 87 (1892)(1869)Penalized carrying concealed weapons (including pistols and bowie knives) with fines and forfeiture, except for officers on duty. Further prohibited supplying cigarettes or specified weapons to minors under sixteen, punishable by fines.Item type:Item, The Charters and Ordinances of the City of Richmond 227 (1859)(1859)An Ordinance Concerning Nuisances Other Than in the Streets, § 11: If any person shall sell, or expose for sale in this city, any torpedos, popcrackers, squibs, or other fire-works, of any kind whatever, except in packages containing each at least one hundred, or shall without permission in writing from the mayor, discharge, or set off, in any street or alley of the city, any balloon, rocket, torpedo, popcracker, fireworks or any combination of gunpowder, or any other combustible or dangerous material; or if any person shall, except under the fortieth section of the ordinance concerning streets, without necessity fire or discharge in this city any cannon, gun, pistol, or other fire-arms of any kind, or shall make therein any unusual noise, whereby the inhabitants thereof may be alarmed, or raise or fly a kite in this city, or if any auctioneer shall use any bell or herald to notify the public of any sale, except of real property, every such person herein offending, shall pay a fine of not less than one nor more than twenty dollars.Item type:Item, The Charters and Ordinances of the City of Richmond ch. 62, §§ 1–7 (1869)(1869)Ch. 62, Concerning Powder, §§1-7: Not more than fifty pounds of powder shall be transported in the city at one time, except by a military company, or in a vehicle constructed as the Engineer of the city shall prescribe.Item type:Item, 1878 Va. Acts 301(1877)Carrying Concealed Weapons, ch. VI, § 7: If a person habitually carry about his person, hid from common observation, any pistol, dirk, bowie-knife, or any weapon of the like kind, he shall be fined not more than fifty dollars.Item type:Item, 1877 Va. Acts 305(1877)Ch. 7: Prohibited any person carrying a gun, pistol, Bowie-knife, dagger, or other dangerous weapon to a place of public worship while meeting for religious purposes. Violators fined not less than twenty dollars, and may be held without warrant for three hours by a "conservator of the peace."Item type:Item, 1879-80 Va. Acts 104(1879)Ch. 5, § 4, pt. 19: To direct the location of all buildings for storing gun-powder or other combustible substances; to regulate the sale and use of gunpowder, fire-crackers, fire-works, kerosene oil, nitroglycerine . . . the discharge of firearmsItem type:Item, Alexandria Gazette, Jun. 15, 1876, at 2(1876)An Act for Raising the Revenue for the Next Fiscal Year, § 2: Imposed a 10 dollar tax on shooting galleriesItem type:Item, The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Richmond tit. 7, ch. 46, § 12 (1869)(1869)Concerning Nuisances Not in Streets: No person, firm or incorporated company shall keep in any house in the city any loaded shell or shot, or any explosive material of any sort, not authorized by ordinance. And any person, firm or incorporated company violating the provisions of this section shall be fined not less than twenty nor more than one hundred dollars; and each day on which the same is so kept in the city shall be a distinct offence and punishable as such."Item type:Item, 1847-48 Va. Acts 67(1846)Ch. 79, § 1: That if any person shall unlawfully shoot at another in any public square ... with intent in so doing to maim, disfigure, disable or kill such person, or to do him some other bodily harm, ... every such offender, his aiders and abettors, shall be guilty of a high misdemeanor. and shall on conviction, be punished by imprisonment in the common jail for a period not less than six months nor more than three years...Item type:Item, 1875 Va. Acts 102(1875)Ch. 124: Prohibited the carry of any gun, pistol, Bowie knife, dagger, or other dangerous weapon into places of public worship without sufficient cause.Item type:Item, 1847-48 Va. Laws 129, ch. 14, § 16.(1848)If any person shall go armed with any offensive or dangerous weapon without reasonable cause to fear an assault or other injury, or violence to his person, or to his family or property, he may be required to find sureties for keeping the peace for a term not exceeding twelve months, with the right of appealing as before provided.Item type:Item, 1873 Va. Code 802–03(1865)Tit. 29, ch. 99, § 5: If any person shall hunt, shoot, fowl or range with or without dogs, on the lands of another, without the consent of the owner or tenant of such lands, or shoot along any public road, or in the streets of any town or village, in any of the counties of this commonwealth, on the lands comprehended in the survey of any proprietor, he shall be deemed guilty of a trespass, and shall be fined for each offense five dollarsItem type:Item, 1875 Va. Acts 109(1875)Ch. 100, § 12: If any person shall, at any time, either in the night or day-time, shoot at wild fowl in any county bordering . . . with any gun which cannot be conveniently discharged from the shoulder at arm's length without a rest, or have such gun in his possession on a boat, a justice of any such county shall require such gun to be surrendered, and shall order it to be destroyed, and shall fine the offender ten dollars.Item type:Item, 1847-48 Va. Acts 110(1847)Ch. 7, § 8: Created a fine for habitual conceal carrying of any pistol, dirk, Bowie knife, or weapon of the like kind. Fifty dollarsItem type:Item, 1875 Va. Acts 164(1875)Ch. 162: Approved a property tax on all males over the age of twenty-one on the aggregate value of all rifles, muskets, and other firearms, Bowie-knives, and all weapons of a similar kind.Item type:Item, 1870 Va. Acts 1206(1870)Tit. 54, ch. 191, § 7: If a person habitually carry about his person, hid from common observation, any pistol, dirk, bowie knife, or any weapon of the like kind, he shall be fined fifty dollars, and imprisoned for not more than twelve months in the county or corporation jail. The informer shall have half of such fine.Item type:Item, The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Richmond 196–97 (1869)(1869)Ch. 34, § 42: If any person engaged in military exercise shall fire or discharge, in any street or public alley of this city, any cannon, gun, pistol, or any other firearms, except on the fourth of July, the twenty-second of February and the nineteenth day of October, or at military burial or some extraordinary occasion allowed by the Mayor (and by him notified through the newspaper, or by posting handbills or otherwise), or if any person shall, in any street or public alley in said city, play at bandy or throw snowballs, stones or other missiles, or discharge arrows form a bow or cross-bow, or blow a horn, he shall be fined not less than one nor more than ten dollars.]Item type:Item, General Ordinances of the City of Winchester, Ordinance XXI (1875).(1875)Gunpowder. To be kept in metallic canisters in limited quantities: "It shall not be lawful for any person or persons or firm, for any purpose whatsoever, to store or keep within the limits of this city a larger quantity of powder than twenty-five pounds. All powder shall be kept well secured in a close tin or other metallic canister ; provided that larger quantities may be kept in such magazine or other place as the council may provide or designate for the storage of powder, subject to such regulations and charges as the council may prescribe."Item type:Item, Revised Ordinances of the Corporation of Winchester 78 (1856)(1856)Section 3 prohibited firing a gun or pistol within the corporation carries a $1 fine, unless done out of necessity during public duty or during a military parade ordered by a commanding officer. Section 4 prohibited discharging a cannon or field-piece within 100 yards of a dwelling without the owner or occupier's consent, subject to a $5 fine for anyone participating, aiding, or abetting. Section 5 prohibited selling fireworks, firecrackers, or squibs within the corporation, punishing with a $5 fine per offense. Section 6 prohibited setting off fireworks or flying kites within the corporation, resulting in a $1 fine per offense, with half of the collected fine awarded to the informer.