Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed a law on Thursday banning the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic firearms, putting the state on a collision course with gun rights groups, the Justice Department and a wave of court challenges. The measure takes effect July 1.
The law makes it a misdemeanor to buy, sell, transfer, import or manufacture an “assault firearm,” punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. It defines those firearms to include semi-automatic rifles or pistols with magazine capacity of more than 15 rounds, along with guns that accept detachable magazines and have features such as a second handgrip or collapsible stock. It also applies to magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds. For most people, there is no penalty for simply possessing a weapon covered by the law.
Spanberger said Friday that “firearms designed to inflict maximum casualties do not belong on our streets,” and added that “we are taking this step to protect families and support the law enforcement officers who work every day to keep our communities safe.” The new restriction is one of two dozen gun rules and limits she has enacted in her first few months in office, and it marks a sharp reversal from her Republican predecessor, who vetoed many similar measures.
Gun control advocates cast the law as overdue. Adam Kraut said the firearms and magazines covered by the ban “aren’t bizarre and unusual outliers, they’re among the most commonly owned guns and magazines in the country,” and that they are “owned in the tens of millions by peaceable Americans who use them overwhelmingly lawfully.”
Opponents moved just as fast. After Spanberger signed the bill, the National Rifle Association, joined by other groups, sued in federal and state court. The U.S. Department of Justice also vowed to sue to block the law from being enforced. In an April letter to Spanberger, Harmeet Dhillon warned that the measure would “infringe on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens to enjoy and use AR-15 rifles for lawful purposes by making it a crime to purchase and sell them.”
Virginia is not alone in tightening the rules. Eleven other states and Washington, D.C., already ban the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic firearms, though the details differ from place to place. The legal fight in Virginia will unfold in the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers the state along with Maryland and several others, and which has twice upheld a Maryland law banning dozens of types of semi-automatic weapons. That history makes Virginia’s new assault weapons ban one of the most closely watched gun cases now headed for the courts.
The immediate question is no longer whether Virginia will have the law. It will. The test now is whether judges will let it stand long enough to take effect on July 1.
