                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

WILLFULLY DISCHARGING FIREARMS IN PUBLIC PLACES (§ 18.2-280)

A. If any person willfully discharges or causes to be discharged any firearm in
any street in a city or town, or in any place of public business or place of
public gathering, and such conduct results in bodily injury to another person,
he shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony. If such conduct does not result in
bodily injury to another person, he shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

B. If any person willfully discharges or causes to be discharged any firearm
upon the buildings and grounds of any public, private or religious elementary,
middle or high school, he shall be guilty of a Class 4 felony, unless he is
engaged in a program or curriculum sponsored by or conducted with permission of
a public, private or religious school.

C. If any person willfully discharges or causes to be discharged any firearm
upon any public property within 1,000 feet of the property line of any public,
private or religious elementary, middle or high school property he shall be
guilty of a Class 4 felony, unless he is engaged in lawful hunting.

D. This section shall not apply to any law-enforcement officer in the
performance of his official duties nor to any other person whose said willful
act is otherwise justifiable or excusable at law in the protection of his life
or property, or is otherwise specifically authorized by law.

E. Nothing in this statute shall preclude the Commonwealth from electing to
prosecute under any other applicable provision of law instead of this section.

HISTORY: Code 1950, § 18.1-69; 1960, c. 358; 1975, cc. 14, 15; 1992, c. 735;
1999, c. 996; 2001, c. 712; 2005, c. 928.