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21 Va. App. 93

462 S.E.2d 120

Richardson v. Commonwealth

Court of Appeals of Virginia

Decided September 26, 1995

Court of Appeals of Virginia · decided 1995-09-26

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1995-09-26

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently April 2015

16 state decisions

70199520002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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*101BENTON, Judge,

¶1concurring.

¶2Although I agree with the majority that the consent form required Richardson to respond truthfully to the inquiry whether he was “under an indictment for a felony or ... charged with a felony in any court,” I do not agree that an untruthful response to any of the various inquiries on the consent form constitutes a violation of Code § 18.2-308.2:2. Indeed, Code § 18.2-308.2:2 by its very terms criminalizes only a “materially false statement on the consent form.” Code § 18.2-308.2:2(K) (emphasis added).

¶3Furthermore, although I agree that Richardson’s “No” response was materially false, it was not materially false merely because it was untrue. It was materially false because it was untrue and it related to a violation of federal criminal laws enacted to control illegal weapon use. Richardson’s argument that Virginia law does not forbid purchase of a firearm by an individual under indictment) does not, in my opinion, define the scope of materiality. His untrue response to the inquiry at issue was materially false because Code § 18.2-308.2:2 mandates that the form shall incorporate by reference the information designed to determine whether a violation of federal law has also occurred. That inquiry is a significant tool in Virginia’s enforcement of its gun control laws.

¶4I concur in Parts II and III of the majority opinion, and, for the reasons stated above, I join in the judgment affirming the conviction.

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