{"id":117352,"date":"2026-06-18T00:03:02","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=117352"},"modified":"2026-06-17T22:43:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T03:43:22","slug":"117352","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=117352","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

SAF Backing Former Virginia AG\u2019s Challenge to State\u2019s New \u2018Assault Firearms\u2019 Ban.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Second Amendment Foundation has agreed to help support former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in a challenge to the state\u2019s newly passed \u201cassault weapons\u201d ban.<\/p>\n

In May, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed into law a ban on so-called \u201cassault firearms\u201d declaring that \u201c\u2026any person who imports, sells, manufactures, purchases, or transfers an assault firearm is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.\u201d The law further defines an \u201cassault firearm\u201d as a semiautomatic rifle chambered in any caliber besides .22 rimfire or one that contains a litany of common features. The law also bans magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds of ammunition and goes into effect on July 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike other lawsuits filed challenging this \u2018assault weapons\u2019 ban, this case is unique in that plaintiffs are arguing they have the right to buy the banned arms to preserve their ability to function as the militia that is preserved under the Virginia constitution\u2019s Militia Clause,\u201d Cuccinelli said. \u201cMost other cases are making\u00a0Heller<\/em>-like arguments, and we feel this case is a good vehicle to ensure this unconstitutional ban is looked at by the court from every angle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Virginia\u2019s Militia Clause treats the militia as including any able-bodied person within a specified age range who is not already part of an organized militia. The newly passed assault weapons ban runs afoul of the Militia Clause because it prevents members of the militia from acquiring the arms necessary for their militia service.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile SAF is already a named plaintiff in our own federal Second Amendment challenge\u00a0McDonald v. Katz<\/em>, we felt it important to support this unique lawsuit,\u201d said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. \u201cWhen it comes to vindicating the rights of our members, we will pursue every viable legal option. We are thrilled to have been given the opportunity to support this state court challenge with Mr. Cuccinelli and think it complements our ongoing federal challenge very nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

As noted in the compliant, \u201cThe General Assembly cannot\u2026prohibit the body of the people from acquiring the very weapons with which they must be prepared to serve as that militia.\u201d Joining SAF in\u00a0Curtis v. Katz<\/em>\u00a0are Bob\u2019s Gun Store, Mike Wood, Dustin Curtis and Daniel Hinkson. Cuccinelli is the attorney of record for the lawsuit. \u201cWe\u2019ve said it before and we\u2019ll say it again \u2013 Virginia lawmakers outright lied to their constituency when they said these new laws aren\u2019t bans,\u201d said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. \u201cAs we\u2019ve seen in the news lately, numerous county prosecutors across Virginia have publicly stated they will not enforce this new \u2018assault weapons\u2019 ban. When the people who enforce the laws are refusing do so it should be a wakeup call for lawmakers that they passed an unconstitutional law.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAF Backing Former Virginia AG\u2019s Challenge to State\u2019s New \u2018Assault Firearms\u2019 Ban. The Second Amendment Foundation has agreed to help support former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli in a challenge to the state\u2019s newly passed \u201cassault weapons\u201d ban. In May, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed into law a ban on so-called \u201cassault firearms\u201d declaring that … 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-117352","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\/117352","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=117352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117353,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117352\/revisions\/117353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}