{"id":117258,"date":"2026-06-10T09:01:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T14:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=117258"},"modified":"2026-06-10T09:01:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T14:01:04","slug":"117258","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=117258","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Virginia judge shuts down universal gun background checks bill<\/a><\/p>\n

A judge has shot down Democrats\u2019 attempt to implement universal background checks for gun purchases in Virginia.<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s battle over gun violence prevention and gun control laws is as heated as it\u2019s ever been now that the courts are hearing challenges to new laws passed by Democrats.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a historical session for gun violence prevention,\u201d said Del. Garrett McGuire, a Democrat from Fairfax County.<\/p>\n

McGuire just had his universal background checks bill shot down by a judge in Lynchburg.<\/p>\n

The bill required Virginia State Police to conduct background checks and provide criminal history records for private gun sales as well as restricting handgun purchases by teenagers.<\/p>\n

Two gun rights groups, Gun Owners of America and Virginia Citizens Defense League, sued and won.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the key reasons that the universal background checks law was unconstitutional is that it denied 18 to 20 year olds the ability to buy a handgun. Period,\u201d said Philip Van Cleave with the Virginia Citizens Defense League.<\/p>\n

More than 20 states and D.C. currently have some form of universal background check requirement in place, according to the Giffords Center for Violence Prevention. Virginia passed a similar law in 2020. A judge ruled against it in October.<\/p>\n

Then the General Assembly passed a new version of the law this year. But last week, the same judge upheld their previous ruling, striking down the law.<\/p>\n

McGuire said he championed this bill, in part, because he was a student at Virginia Tech during the campus shooting in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cNineteen years later, I find myself in the House of Delegates still asking some of the same questions that we asked right after that shooting, including why is there a loophole in our code that allows criminals to purchase firearms?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Following the court\u2019s ruling last week, Virginia State Police issued a notice saying the department was \u201cprohibited from administering, enforcing, or otherwise imposing\u201d universal background checks and that VSP \u201ccurrently cannot provide criminal history background checks for the private sale of firearms.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 90% of Americans support universal background checks, according to gun violence prevention group Everytown for Gun Safety.<\/p>\n

Chris Stone with Gun Owners of America said they\u2019re unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s instances where people need a firearm, and they get held up in a waiting period program,\u201d he said. \u201cOr even if there isn\u2019t a waiting period, their name comes back as a false positive in the NICS system.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked how can people with past violent offences or mental health conditions be prevented from buying guns if there\u2019s no background check, Stone said, \u201cWell, ironically what that shows is that the system itself doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

This likely isn\u2019t the last legal action on Virginia\u2019s universal background checks, and gun rights groups have more gun safety laws in their sights, with additional legal challenges on the way.<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s Democratic majority also passed an assault weapons ban that goes into effect next month. This Friday, gun rights groups are challenging that law in court, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia judge shuts down universal gun background checks bill A judge has shot down Democrats\u2019 attempt to implement universal background checks for gun purchases in Virginia. Virginia\u2019s battle over gun violence prevention and gun control laws is as heated as it\u2019s ever been now that the courts are hearing challenges to new laws passed by … 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":[23,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-courts","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117258","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=117258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117259,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117258\/revisions\/117259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}