Virginia Gun Confiscation: New Ban, Injunction, and Enforcement

Virginia is not confiscating guns. The 2026 laws that sparked the confiscation talk in Virginia ban the future sale of certain semi-automatic firearms and magazines that hold more than 15 rounds, and they restrict carrying those firearms in public, but they do not require anyone to surrender, register, or destroy a gun they already own lawfully. On top of that, a state judge blocked enforcement of the ban six days before it was set to take effect on July 1, 2026.¹

What the New Law Actually Bans

Governor Abigail Spanberger signed Senate Bill 749 and its House companion, House Bill 217, on May 15, 2026. Starting July 1, 2026, the law prohibits the future sale, manufacture, import, and transfer of firearms classified as “assault firearms.” That category covers semi-automatic rifles or pistols capable of accepting magazines of more than 15 rounds, and rifles with detachable magazines that also carry features such as a second handgrip or a collapsible stock. The same law bans the sale of magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.²

A violation is a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.³ A conviction also triggers a three-year prohibition on purchasing, possessing, or transporting any firearm, and a materially false statement on a required consent form or transaction record is a Class 5 felony.⁴

A separate law, HB 1524, prohibits carrying the same category of assault-style firearms in public spaces such as streets, sidewalks, and parks. It carves out exceptions for law enforcement, on-duty military, licensed security guards, concealed handgun permit holders, and people engaged in lawful hunting or shooting at established ranges.⁵

The broader gun violence prevention package Governor Spanberger signed at a June 16, 2026 ceremony also includes bills on safe storage, ghost guns, expanded red flag orders, firearms in hospitals and psychiatric facilities, the “boyfriend loophole” for domestic violence offenders, firearm industry civil liability, a prohibition on firearm possession by hate crime offenders, and support for local gun sell-back programs.⁶ None of those bills requires surrender of currently owned firearms either.

What Current Owners Have to Do

Nothing, if you already own a covered firearm or magazine and possess it lawfully. The law does not require existing owners to turn in, register, or destroy any firearm or magazine. If you lawfully purchased an assault firearm before July 1, 2026, you may continue to possess it.⁴

You also keep several options for parting with it voluntarily:

Sell it to a licensed firearms dealer.
Sell it to someone outside Virginia who can lawfully possess it.
Give it to an immediate family member, meaning a spouse, parent, child, grandparent, or sibling, as long as the recipient is not legally prohibited from possessing firearms.⁴

What you cannot do, once the ban is in effect, is sell or transfer a covered firearm to another Virginia resident who is not an immediate family member, or sell a covered magazine at all. Senator Saddam Salim, who sponsored SB 749, put the practical reality this way: “No one is ever going to go to your home and say, ‘Where did you get your weapons from?'”²

Where the Confiscation Claim Comes From

Two things drove the confiscation narrative. The first is a legal argument. The NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action characterized the magazine provisions as “magazine confiscation,” reasoning that a permanent ban on selling, transferring, or passing property down forces owners to “dispossess themselves” of it over time or eventually face criminal exposure.⁷ Whether you find that persuasive depends on whether you count a restriction on future disposition of grandfathered property as confiscation. The statute itself takes nothing from current owners.

The second was rumor. By April 2026, social media posts claimed Virginia had passed legislation directing police to go door-to-door collecting firearms. Virginia State Police Superintendent Colonel Jeffrey S. Katz issued a public statement on April 9, 2026, denying it: “There is no legislative proposal seeking to do this, and there will not be.” He called the idea “very un-American” and added, “Not now, not ever.”⁸

A Judge Has Blocked the Ban

On June 25, 2026, Lancaster County Circuit Judge John Martin issued a preliminary injunction in Crump v. Katz, brought by Gun Owners of America, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, and an individual plaintiff. The order bars the Virginia State Police from enforcing the assault weapons ban, the magazine capacity limit, and the related public carry restrictions. It runs through December 31, 2026, or until a final order is issued.¹⁹

Judge Martin applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s framework from New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which requires the government to show that a firearm regulation is rooted in historical tradition. He found the commonwealth unlikely to succeed on that showing, concluded the firearms in question are commonly used, and said the specific features targeted by the ban — folding stocks, threaded barrels, and similar characteristics — lacked a “rational basis” for prohibition. He also found the law likely inconsistent with Article I, Section 13 of the Virginia Constitution.¹

Attorney General Jay Jones said his office would “urgently file a motion to stay this ruling and appeal this temporary injunction.”¹⁰ The attorney general’s office also noted that the injunction technically applies only to the Virginia State Police, leaving open the question of whether local police departments could still act.¹¹

Other challenges are still pending. McDonald v. Katz, filed May 14, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia by the Second Amendment Foundation, the NRA, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and two private citizens, argues the banned firearms are “ordinary semiautomatic firearms” in common use.¹² A separate state case, Black et al. v. Hook, was filed in Fauquier County Circuit Court on May 20, 2026, funded by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, and argues the law fails the Bruen historical-tradition test.¹³

Local Prosecutors Are Refusing to Enforce

Several commonwealth’s attorneys announced, even before the injunction, that they would not prosecute violations of the new gun laws. Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Bethany Harrison notified the city’s police chief that her office would decline to enforce both the assault weapons ban and the public carry ban, citing Heller, Bruen, and U.S. v. Miller, and citing the discretion Virginia law gives prosecutors in choosing which charges to bring.¹⁴

Prosecutors in Powhatan, Smyth, Spotsylvania, and Pulaski counties followed. Powhatan Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Cerullo wrote that “significant parts of House Bill 217 — specifically, bans of so-called assault firearms, large capacity ammunition feeding devices and the carrying of these items in public — are facially unconstitutional.” Smyth County’s Phillip Blevins Jr. said his office “will not support criminal charges resulting solely from technical violations of the unconstitutional assault weapon ban.”¹⁵

Attorney General Jones responded that commonwealth’s attorneys “are elected to enforce our laws, which is what we expect them to do when these laws take effect on July 1.”¹⁵

Where Things Stand for Gun Owners

As of late June 2026, the assault weapons ban, the magazine capacity limit, and the public carry restrictions are blocked by the Lancaster County preliminary injunction at least through the end of the year, with the attorney general pursuing an appeal. Owners of currently possessed firearms and magazines have no obligation to surrender or register anything under the statute even if the ban does take effect. The rest of the gun legislation package, including safe storage requirements, the ghost gun ban, and expanded red flag orders, is on track to take effect or has already taken effect on July 1, 2026.¹¹ Dealers and owners have described confusion over what is enforceable in the interim, particularly given the gap between the statewide injunction, which technically applies only to Virginia State Police, and the possibility that local agencies could still act.

1
Courthouse News Service. Virginia Judge Blocks Assault Weapons Ban Six Days Before Implementation
2
WSLS. Virginia’s New Gun Law Bans the Future Sale of Semi-Automatic Firearms on July 1
3
NBC Washington. New Virginia Law Banning Assault Firearms Prompts Quick Lawsuits From Gun Rights Groups
4
Virginia Legislative Information System. SB749H2 – Full Text
5
LegiScan. Virginia HB1524
6
Office of the Governor of Virginia. Governor Spanberger Signs Gun Violence Prevention Legislation
7
NRA-ILA. Virginia Gun Owners Face Magazine Confiscation
8
WSET. Virginia State Police Dispel Rumor of Law Leading to Gun Confiscation
9
CBS19 News. Judge Blocks Virginia Gun Law Before July 1
10
WTVR. Assault Weapons Ban Injunction
11
WDBJ7. Virginia Gun Laws Face Court Challenges; Confusion Grows Among Owners, Dealers
12
Second Amendment Foundation. SAF Files Lawsuit Challenging Virginia Assault Weapons Ban
13
NSSF. NSSF-Funded Lawsuit Seeks Emergency Preliminary Injunction to Block Virginia’s Gun Magazine Ban Law
14
WSLS. Lynchburg Commonwealth’s Attorney Issues Statement on Virginia Gun Legislation
15
Virginia Scope. Some Commonwealth’s Attorneys Vow to Not Enforce New Gun Ban in Virginia