Virginia could ban the sale of assault firearms: What to know

NORFOLK, Va. — Legislation passed by the General Assembly this year seeks to ban the sale and production of assault weapons and to prohibit carrying them in public. The bans are part of a suite of gun regulations the legislature sent to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s desk this year.

Virginia last passed sweeping gun reforms in 2020 when Democrats had control of the legislature and the governor’s mansion. Those included measures like universal background checks; a so-called red-flag law that allows law enforcement to temporarily remove guns from people who are a significant risk to themselves or others; and a one-per-month limit on handgun purchases. Four Democratic state senators voted with Republicans to kill an assault rifle ban that year. In recent years, former Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, vetoed a number of proposed gun control bills.

Spanberger, a Democrat, has previously indicated she would sign legislation to tighten firearm storage requirements, prevent the sale of large-capacity magazines, and crack down on ghost guns.

“I will not veto commonsense proposals, like (Youngkin) has done,” she said at a gun safety rally last April. “Because to prevent heartbreaking disasters, firearms must be secured when near minors to save lives. And if we are serious about stopping violent criminals, we must prevent them from manufacturing and distributing illegal, untraceable firearms.”

Spanberger did not say if or how she would amend the proposed legislation, but a spokesperson for her administration said the governor is “carefully reviewing all legislation on her desk.”

This year’s legislation as it passed the General Assembly defines “assault firearm” as a category of semi-automatic center-fire rifles or pistols with a magazine capacity of more than 15 rounds. They’re also known as modern sporting rifles, and proponents say they’re commonly used for target shooting, hunting and home defense.

“It bans the lawful sale of an entire class of firearms,” said Mark Oliva, managing director of public affairs at the National Shooting Sports Foundation. “It is the AR-15 style rifle, is a semi-automatic rifle that fires one round for each time you pull the trigger, that operates the same way as my duck-hunting shotgun.”

The proposed legislation would allow for current owners to keep their rifles. But it would expand the definition of public carrying to unloaded semi-automatic center-fire rifles. Current Virginia code prohibits their loaded carry in public in some localities including Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Newport News and Norfolk.

The FBI National Instant Criminal Background Check System reports in February, about 23,000 more background checks to purchase a firearm in Virginia cleared compared to February of last year. There isn’t a centralized database of gun sales, but the data takes into account how often people are approved to buy firearms. In October, a judge struck down the requirement that had been in place since 2020 for background checks to be conducted during private sales. Then-Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, did not appeal that ruling, and the judge did not grant current Democratic Attorney General Jay Jones more time to file an appeal once in office.

Oliva attributes the uptick in approved background checks to concern over being unable to purchase semi-automatic rifles in the future if Spanberger signs the legislation into law. If that happens, Oliva said the NSSF is prepared to sue.

“We’re actually party to a lawsuit against Illinois for a similar ban on the sale of the modern sporting rifle,” he said. “There are lawsuits in California…we’re waiting for the Supreme Court to take this up.”

The Richmond-based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a similar assault weapon ban in Maryland. The Supreme Court of the United States declined to hear arguments about assault weapon bans last summer, but they could be back on the table soon.

Gun safety advocates say the bans are necessary. Lori Haas, advocacy manager at the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University, said the ban was key for public safety.

“What’s important about these bills is not only do we ban the future sale of semi-automatic assault weapons, we also prohibit the carry of those weapons,” she said.

Haas’ daughter was wounded in the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting that killed 32 people. The gunman in that mass shooting used two semi-automatic pistols, one of which was a Glock equipped with a high-capacity magazine. The man who killed 12 municipal employees in Virginia Beach in 2019 used two handguns with extended magazines and a suppressor.

Also headed to Spanberger’s desk are bills that would prohibit leaving guns out in the open in unattended cars. Local law enforcement in Hampton Roads has long said that’s long been a problem contributing to gun violence. And earlier this week, a Richmond jury indicted a man accused of providing the handgun used to kill an ROTC professor and wound two students at Old Dominion University. The man said he had stolen the gun out of a car in an apartment complex in Newport News before selling it to Mohamed Jalloh, the ODU gunman.

The General Assembly also passed bills requiring gun owners to securely store firearms in residences where kids are present. Other gun-related bills would prohibit guns in hospitals that provide mental health services and on college campuses, with exceptions for programs like the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps and for law enforcement. And other legislation would tighten restrictions on firearm access for people convicted of domestic violence and of hate crimes.

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