{"id":116848,"date":"2026-05-17T09:37:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T14:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116848"},"modified":"2026-05-17T09:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T14:39:11","slug":"116848","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=116848","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

NSSF Funds Lawsuit Against Virginia for Unconstitutional Firearm Bans<\/a><\/p>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C. \u00a0\u2014 NSSF\u00ae<\/sup>, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, is funding a\u00a0lawsuit filed today<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0against the Commonwealth of Virginia for violating both the U.S. Constitution and the Virginia Constitution. Virginia\u2019s expansive new law,\u00a0HB 217<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0SB 749<\/a><\/strong>, bans the sale and transfer of firearms that are expressly protected for private ownership by both the federal and state constitutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Abigail Spanberger, and the Virginia General Assembly, are grossly violating rights held by the citizens of the Commonwealth. The constitutions of the United States and the Commonwealth of Virginia expressly prohibit the government from infringing on the right to keep and bear arms,\u201d said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel. \u201cFurther, the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized that firearms in common use are protected from radical gun control. Denying law-abiding citizens the ability to protect themselves with the firearms of their choosing does nothing to make Virginia safer. The only thing this unconstitutional law does is surrender the freedoms that the Founding Fathers, including Virginians George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison \u2014 who authored the U.S. Constitution\u2019s Second Amendment \u2014 so wisely fought for and sought to protect to ensure freedom from tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NSSF-funded complaint, filed by Erick Black, Britton Condon, Clark\u2019s Gun Shop, Inc., Optimus Arms, LLC and Hexmag USA, LLC, in Virginia\u2019s Circuit Court of Fauquier County, details that\u00a0HB 217<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0SB 749<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0criminalizes not just the sale or transfer of commonly-owned Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) and standard capacity magazines, but also commonly owned handguns and shotguns Virginians regularly use for self-defense and hunting. The overly broad definitions of what is wrongfully defined as an \u201cassault firearm\u201d disenfranchise Virginians of their right to keep and bear arms, which are protected by the U.S. Constitution\u2019s Second Amendment and Article I of the Virginia Constitution.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s\u00a0Heller<\/em>\u00a0decision held that firearms in common use are protected by the Second Amendment. That holding precludes bans on the legal sale of MSRs, which number\u00a0over 32 million in circulation<\/a><\/strong>. Likewise, there are a\u00a0conservatively estimated nearly 1 billion detachable magazines<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in private possession and hundreds of millions with a capacity exceeding 15 rounds. Many commonly owned pistols are equipped with 17-round magazines, which\u00a0HB 217<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0SB 749<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0now criminalizes. The law\u2019s expansive definition of \u201cassault firearm\u201d wraps in many commonly owned semiautomatic shotguns and handguns, which will be unlawful to purchase or bear in Virginia.<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s\u00a0HB 217<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0SB 749<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0fails the Supreme Court\u2019s\u00a0Bruen<\/em>\u00a0\u201chistory and tradition\u201d test, as there were no analogous laws banning the lawful acquisition or bearing of firearms at the Nation\u2019s founding. In fact, it is well documented that rifles with a capacity greater than 15 rounds were available and possessed by Americans when the Second Amendment was adopted in 1791.<\/p>\n

Additionally, because\u00a0HB 217<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0SB 749<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0bans rifles, pistols and shotguns commonly used for hunting, it violates Article XI, Section 4 of the Virginia Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NSSF Funds Lawsuit Against Virginia for Unconstitutional Firearm Bans WASHINGTON, D.C. \u00a0\u2014 NSSF\u00ae, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, is funding a\u00a0lawsuit filed today\u00a0against the Commonwealth of Virginia for violating both the U.S. Constitution and the Virginia Constitution. Virginia\u2019s expansive new law,\u00a0HB 217\u00a0\/\u00a0SB 749, bans the sale and transfer of firearms that are expressly protected for … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,50,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-goobermint","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116848"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116851,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116848\/revisions\/116851"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}