Weapons in Hospitals: Virginia’s New Law and the Growing Case for Healthcare Security

A Turning Point for Healthcare Safety

Before examining the technologies used to strengthen hospital security, it is important to understand the scale of the problem they are designed to address. Healthcare facilities must manage a near-constant flow of patients, visitors, and staff while maintaining safe and efficient environments for care. The challenge of keeping weapons out of those environments and voluntary compliance. Virginia’s landmark legislation has historically relied on policy, signage, , signed into law on June 4, 2026, marks an important shift: for the first time across the Commonwealth, bringing a weapon into a qualifying hospital is a crime [1].

Virginia’s Protect Healthcare Workers Act

On June 4, Governor Abigail Spanberger signed House Bill 229 and Senate Bill 173, collectively known as the Protect Healthcare Workers Act, into law [2]. The legislation prohibits individuals from knowingly and intentionally possessing firearms, knives with blades longer than 3½ inches, explosives, stun weapons, and other dangerous weapons inside hospitals and emergency departments that provide mental health, developmental, or emergency medical services [3].

The consequences for violation are meaningful. Anyone found in breach of the law faces a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to 12 months in jail, a fine of up to $2,500, or both [1]. The law includes narrow exemptions for law enforcement, hospital security officers and for certain hospital support staff but applies broadly to the public and to visitors. Facilities are required to post notice of the ban at hospital entrances.

Governor Spanberger framed the signing in direct terms: “Healthcare workers show up for our communities at our most vulnerable moments, and they deserve a safe workplace” [4].

The Scale of Workplace Violence in Healthcare

The passage of this legislation reflects a national crisis that has been building for more than a decade. Healthcare workers face a disproportionate and growing risk of violence on the job.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, hospital workers are five times more likely to be assaulted at work than workers in the broader labor force. A 2024 study found that healthcare workers experience verbal or physical aggression, on average, at least once for every 40 hours worked, the equivalent of an incident every single work week [5].

Data from the Texas Department of State Health Services reinforces how widespread this problem is at the individual level: a 2024 survey found that 75.2 percent of nurses experienced workplace violence within the preceding 12 months, with those in hospital inpatient and outpatient settings reporting the highest career-lifetime prevalence of 93 percent and 91.6 percent, respectively [7].

The passage of Virginia’s weapons ban acknowledges what the data has long made clear: these are not isolated incidents, and they are not improving without meaningful intervention.

Weapons Detection: Moving from Policy to Practice

A legal prohibition on weapons in hospitals is a necessary step. but enforcement without detection infrastructure creates a significant gap between the letter of the law and actual safety outcomes. The Virginia legislation makes it a crime to bring a weapon into a qualifying facility. But identifying whether a weapon is being carried in the first place requires systems capable of screening people as they enter.

This is the operational reality that security leadership in hospitals across the country has been grappling with for years. Sentara Health, the Virginia-based health system whose Norfolk hospital hosted the signing ceremony for the new law, had already taken steps in October 2022 to install weapons screening systems across all 12 of its hospitals in Virginia and North Carolina [3]. The results have been measurable: since implementing screening, Sentara has documented a significant reduction in weapons reaching its clinical areas. The new law gives that kind of proactive investment the backing of a legal deterrent and a reporting framework.

Manual searches and visual inspection alone cannot replicate the thoroughness of electronic weapons screening. Walk-through detectors, handheld units, and advanced weapons detection systems have become essential components of a layered hospital security strategy, particularly as emergency departments, behavioral health units, and psychiatric care settings face the highest concentrations of patient and visitor-driven violence.

The Human and Operational Impact of Security Investment

Security incidents in healthcare settings carry consequences that extend well beyond the immediate moment of violence. Injured staff members may require weeks or months of recovery. Others leave the profession entirely, accelerating workforce shortages that already strain hospital operations. Patients and visitors who witness violent incidents in care settings experience erosion of trust in healthcare institutions. Litigation, increased regulatory scrutiny, and reputational damage add long-term operational and financial costs to the immediate harm.

Virginia’s new law establishes a clear public standard: weapons do not belong in hospitals. It provides law enforcement with the authority to act, and it places a formal obligation on individuals to leave their weapons at the door. For healthcare security professionals, the law represents both a validation of the work they have been doing and a call to action for facilities that have not yet made weapons detection a priority.

Layered security strategies represent the most effective approach to reducing weapons-related incidents in healthcare settings. The goal is not to transform hospitals into fortresses, but to create environments where patients can receive care, families can visit, and healthcare workers can do their jobs without fear.

Weapons Detection Solutions for Healthcare

CEIA USA offers weapons detection technologies designed to help hospitals and healthcare facilities screen patients, visitors, and staff at entry points without disrupting the flow of care.

OPENGATE® — Hospitals rely on CEIA OPENGATE to help create safer environments for patients, visitors, and staff. Its automatic screening technology quickly and accurately identifies metallic threats at main entrances, emergency departments, and labor and delivery units.

SMD®600 Plus — The SMD®600 Plus is a high-performance walkthrough metal detector designed to deliver exceptional sensitivity, discrimination, and detection uniformity. Fully compliant with the NIJ-0601.02 Law Enforcement Standard, it provides fast and accurate screening for hospitals, healthcare facilities, and other environments.

Contact us to discuss your healthcare security needs.

Sources

[1] New Va. law bans weapons in hospitals, giving legal force to security poli… (wtkr.com)

[2] Spanberger signs bills banning weapons in mental health, developmental car… (wset.com)

[3] Spanberger signs law criminalizing bringing guns and other weapons to hosp… (yahoo.com)

[4] Sentara’s advocacy highlighted as Virginia officially bans weapons in hosp… (sentara.com)

[5] aft.org

[6] dshs.texas.gov