Last month’s Virginia election of a new liberal governor, attorney general, and Democratic legislative super majority sparked a run on gun shops by many fearful of a new wave of attacks on Second Amendment rights.
Black Friday purchases and November FBI gun background checks showed a dramatic spike in the commonwealth, which typically is among the top 20 in gun sales.
According to the National Shooting Sports Association, the industry trade group, Virginia jumped into the top five in sales last month.
“Particularly interesting is that background checks in Virginia broke into the top five, which can be easily attributed to concerns that law-abiding gun owners there have with their ability to purchase the firearm of their choice before an incoming legislature and governor strip that choice away,” said NSSF spokesman Mark Oliva.
While it is the home of the National Rifle Association and other Second Amendment advocates, liberal lawmakers in Richmond have pushed anti-gun legislation for years.
Earlier this year, for example, outgoing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed 30 anti-gun bills, including one banning modern sporting rifles, or “assault weapons,” owned by millions of Americans.
Pro- and anti-gun groups expect the general Assembly to approve a similar batch of laws as early as February. Liberal Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger is expected to sign them.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League, which is very active in Richmond lobbying for gun rights, warned in a statement to Washington Secrets that liberal lawmakers are planning to assault the Second Amendment.
“While the Democrats are keeping their cards close to their vest on upcoming gun control, probably to keep gun owners from showing up for VCDL’s Lobby Day on January 19, we know some bad things are going to be introduced this session,” said the group’s President Philip Van Cleave.
It expects a ban on some semi-automatic firearms, a magazine limit of 10 rounds, a requirement that ammunition and gun buyers first purchase a permit and supply fingerprints, and a five-day waiting period on sales in a move to end gun shows.
“The net result will be a lot of new gun owners and new purchases by existing gun owners before any new laws take effect on July 1, 2026,” he said.
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Any bans are expected to be challenged by Virginia and national Second Amendment advocates, and those cases sent as high as the Supreme Court.
Oliva said, “NSSF believes that bans on modern sporting rifles (MSRs), the most-popular selling centerfire rifle in America, are unconstitutional. NSSF also agrees with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas when he wrote in his dissent of the Supreme Court denying cert to challenges to MSR bans, ‘That question is of critical importance to tens of millions of law-abiding AR–15 owners throughout the country. [The Supreme Court has] avoided deciding it for a full decade. And, further percolation is of little value when lower courts in the jurisdictions that ban AR–15s appear bent on distorting this Court’s Second Amendment precedents.’”
