Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares visited Fauquier County, Va. where he joined the superintendent, sheriff, school board members, and others to discuss ideas on how to keep kids safe in school.
Before that round table discussion, 7News reporter Nick Minock spoke to Miyares one-on-one for a wide-ranging conversation on school safety issues.
"Pivoting back to school safety, we hear a lot of local leaders in northern Virginia, whether it be Steve Descano or Buta Biberaj say the problem is the guns,” Minock questioned. “Access to guns like AR 15s--they say is the problem. Do you agree with them?”
"I think the problem is they're not prosecuting gun crimes,” Miyares answered. “I just had a townhall just three weeks ago with members of the Fairfax Police Association, in which the officers expressed such frustration that crimes are not being prosecuted. But they [Descano and Biberaj] are actually making decisions sometimes not to actually charge gun crimes because they realize because gun laws violations in Virginia have mandatory minimum sentences that they won't prosecute them."
“Do you think there should be stricter gun laws?” Minock asked Miyares.
“I think you need to go after repeat violent offenders and get them off the street,” Miyares responded.
Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney Buta Biberaj and Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano said they do prosecute gun crimes and that gun violence needs to be addressed.
“The attorney general could not be more off base or more wrong,” Descano told 7News on Tuesday. “It was just yesterday I was talking to my community on almost every television channel about how we were prosecuting the individual who was accused of shooting up the Tysons Mall and how we are going to seek a stiff sentence and how we are going to prosecute him to the fullest extent. Today in my court house, my office is in the middle of a murder trial where two high school students were murdered with a ghost gun. So the idea we aren’t taking gun crime seriously is completely off base. I think it’s just another example of Jason Miyares weaponizing victim’s pain and trauma for his own political gain.”
“Last year, I helped write a bill that would have made it a prosecutable crime in Virginia to prosecute individuals who carry guns with serial numbers scratched off,” added Descano.
Biberaj spoke to 7News about how she feels there is a need for gun law reform in the United States.
“There is nothing wrong with sending prayers and speaking from your heart, but at some point, as leaders, we have to do more to be able to give some assurance to our community that we are invested in their safety,” said Biberaj, the Commonwealth Attorney for Loudoun County. “And we’re not speaking that language right now. From our leadership, we are not hearing that. We have to take it away from the binary. It’s not either you are for guns or against guns. It’s not. It’s about being safe with guns.”
Biberaj wants to see action in Richmond, Va.
“I have a couple [of] thoughts in mind and I hope at a minimum we would come to the table together,” she said. “Let’s brainstorm some ideas because no one has all the solutions. How about we raise the age for guns?"