---
type: "Bill"
title: "School security officers; employment by private or religious schools, carrying a firearm."
description: "School security officers; employment by private or religious schools, carrying a firearm."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 1656"
citation: "Virginia HB 1656 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Commonwealth Public Safety", "Crimes and Offenses Generally", "Education", "Weapons"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Mark L. Cole"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 15
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2018-11-29"
last_action: "2019-02-21"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/59ef8bdc-88a1-4561-b238-083bacf13453"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB1656"
source_hash: "44fd6d1b878d74810389fd4f5907263fa43a5f5bc2f68fcb45f08e6f56f630cb"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia HB 1656 (2019) — School security officers; employment by private or religious schools, carrying a firearm.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0120)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0120)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB1656ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1656ER)
3. **House: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19100833D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB1656)

## Votes

- Reported from Courts of Justice — **14–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate — **34–6** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Education — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House — **78–16** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Mark L. Cole — primary (person)
- John J. McGuire, III — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-11-29** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19100833D `introduction`
- **2018-11-29** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-11** Assigned Education sub: Subcommittee #2 `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-23** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-01-24** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2019-01-25** Read third time and passed House (78-Y 16-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-01-28** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-01-28** Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-11** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-13** Enrolled
- **2019-02-13** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-14** Signed by President
- **2019-02-15** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on February 15, 2019
- **2019-02-15** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, February 22, 2019
- **2019-02-21** Approved by Governor-Chapter 120 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/59ef8bdc-88a1-4561-b238-083bacf13453`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).