RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Democrats have a message for any sheriff or prosecutor who refuses to enforce the state’s new “assault firearms” ban: fall in line, or pay for it.
State Sen. Louise Lucas, one of the most powerful Democrats in Richmond, has signaled she intends to go after the elected commonwealth’s attorneys and sheriffs who have publicly refused to enforce SB 749, including by stripping funding from their offices. The National Rifle Association flagged Lucas’s threat this week and said it will fight her effort “every step of the way.”
Strip away the politics and look at what is actually on the table. Elected lawmakers want to punish the local officers closest to the people for declining to enforce a law those officers believe violates the Virginia Constitution they were sworn to uphold.
The refusal Lucas wants to crush is widespread. Roughly 16 commonwealth’s attorneys and about 10 sheriffs across Virginia have said they will not prosecute or arrest law-abiding gun owners under the ban, pointing to Article I, Section 13 of the state constitution, Virginia’s own right to keep and bear arms. That stand grew out of the Second Amendment sanctuary movement News2A has covered from the beginning, from nearly 30 localities reaffirming their sanctuary status to whole counties moving to defy the governor’s restrictions. Readers who want the full backstory will find it there.
The fight is over SB 749 and its companion carry measure, SB 727, signed by Gov. Abigail Spanberger on May 14 and set to take effect July 1. SB 749 turns common semi-automatic rifles and standard magazines into contraband based on ordinary features, a scope News2A laid out when Spanberger expanded the restrictions on her way to signing.
Gun owners are not relying on defiance alone. On June 16, Gun Owners of America, the Gun Owners Foundation, the Virginia Citizens Defense League, the Virginia Citizens Defense Foundation, and gun writer John Crump petitioned the Supreme Court of Virginia to block the ban before July 1, after the Lancaster County Circuit Court stayed their lawsuit, Crump v. Katz, and canceled a scheduled hearing. “The Article I, Section 13 rights of Virginians to keep and bear arms are at stake,” said GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt. “We hope that today’s petition will expedite a ruling.”
That is the legal track, and it will play out under the rules. The political track is where it gets ugly. Rather than wait for a court to decide whether SB 749 can survive a constitutional challenge, Lucas and her allies are openly talking about retaliation against officials who took the same oath she did. The popular Guns & Gadgets channel put the standoff in front of a national audience this week, and it leaves Virginians with a fair question: when a state government threatens to defund the very people elected to keep their communities safe, who is really the lawless one?
