Gun retailers fire back at Virginia's ban on assault weapons

RICHMOND, Va. (CN) — Firearm retailers and gun hobbyists sued Virginia in state court Friday over its newly approved ban on the sale of high-capacity semiautomatic rifles and pistols.

The plaintiffs, a collection of firearm owners, retailers, firing ranges and nonprofits, seek an injunction barring the enforcement of the ban. They claim it violates the state constitution’s right-to-bear-arms provision.

“Defendants’ enforcement of the firearms ban and the magazine ban hinders, burdens and thus infringes plaintiffs’ right to keep and bear arms as a matter of plain text,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint.

Friday’s filing in rural Washington County comes after the National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition filed a federal lawsuit in Alexandria, Virginia, on Thursday, mere hours after Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger signed the legislation into law.

“We made it clear that this extreme antigun proposal, which bans the new purchase of commonly owned firearms and standard capacity magazines in the commonwealth, is a blatant violation of Second Amendment rights and an affront to landmark Supreme Court cases,” John Commerford, executive director for the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action, said in a statement. “The NRA will not sit idly by while progressive politicians strip the rights of law-abiding citizens, and our world-class legal team is locked, loaded, and ready to shoot down this outrageous gun control law.”

Virginia code defines assault firearms as semiautomatic center-fire rifles or pistols that hold more than 15 bullets. Delegate Dan Helmer introduced the House of Delegates version of the bill, which makes any person who imports, sells, manufactures, purchases or transfers assault firearms guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.

“Weapons similar to those I carried servicing in combat zones have no place in our schools, in our churches and on our streets,” Helmer, an Army veteran, said in a statement. “Virginians have been on the precipice of finally banning these dangerous weapons before — but this time we have a governor who has actually served in law enforcement and understands what it means to protect our neighborhoods."

Republican lawmakers criticized the ban for likely causing lengthy and thus expensive litigation.

“The Supreme Court has already spoken to this in Bruen, and Democrats are going to waste even more taxpayer money just to lose,” minority leader for the House of Delegates Terry Kilgore said in a statement. “Again."

The gun rights organizations, joined by two Virginia residents, made clear their hope that the lawsuits will reach their respective supreme courts. In 2024, a majority of the en banc Fourth Circuit narrowly upheld Maryland’s assault firearms ban. The majority held that the ban passed the test the Supreme Court set in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which changed the standard for determining whether a gun control law violates the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court recently declined to hear a challenge to Maryland’s decade-old assault weapons ban.

Before the 2022 ruling, the Fourth Circuit held in Kolbe v. Hogan that if a weapon is most useful to the military, the Second Amendment does not protect it, and explicitly labeled AR-15s as a weapon designed for the battlefield. However, in Bruen, the Supreme Court established a new test based on whether the public commonly uses the weapons in question for self-defense.

For gun regulations to remain feasible post-Bruen, the government must also justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The Supreme Court acknowledged that the Second Amendment isn’t boundless in D.C. v. Heller, where the majority said the country has a tradition of prohibiting the carrying of dangerous and unusual weapons.

“Those cases were wrongly decided,” the plaintiffs said in their federal complaint. “Applying the analysis that governs Second Amendment cases requires holding Virginia’s restrictions unconstitutional and permanently enjoining their enforcement. Plaintiffs therefore seek to have those cases overruled by a court competent to do so.”

According to a 2021 survey by Georgetown University, around 24.6 million Americans have owned AR-15 or similar rifles. Opponents argue the bill goes beyond its purported scope of banning weapons like AR-15s and M16s by prohibiting magazines that can hold more than 15 bullets.

“The firearms and magazines banned in this law aren’t bizarre and unusual outliers, they’re among the most commonly owned guns and magazines in the country,” Second Amendment Foundation executive director Adam Kraut said in a statement. “They’re owned in the tens of millions by peaceable Americans who use them overwhelmingly lawfully.”

Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, indicated the feds intend to challenge the ban. Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said he is looking forward to defending the ban.

“Every community deserves protection from violence,” the Democrat said. “We will use every tool available to uphold the law fairly, responsibly and with an unwavering commitment to public safety.”

The ban is part of a larger effort from Democrats to combat gun violence. Spanberger signed into law bills creating a state cause of action against members of the firearm industry for consumer protection violations, outlawing firearms in hospitals and on college campuses, and creating a Class 5 felony for anyone who sells or purchases firearms assembled from parts that lack serial numbers, called ghost guns.

Democrats also passed laws hoping to curb the theft and misuse of firearms with a bill that makes it a Class 4 misdemeanor for failing to store firearms in locked boxes in homes with minors and a civil penalty for leaving firearms unattended in vehicles.

“I am signing this bill into law because firearms designed to inflict maximum casualties do not belong on our streets,” Spanberger said in a statement on the assault firearms ban. “We are taking this step to protect families and support the law enforcement officers who work every day to keep our communities safe.”