Bills for the 2026 legislative session in Virginia can be pre-filed starting on Monday, November 17, and in the coming days we're going to see dozens of pieces of anti-gun legislation introduced by Democrats in the House and Senate. Now that Democrats will soon have complete control of state government there is no check on their anti-2A impulses (save for their own political calculations), and the upcoming session is going to be an absolute nightmare for gun owners and Second Amendment supporters.
What can we expect to see this week? It's possible that Democrats will hold off on introducing their onslaught of anti-gun legislation until we're closer to the session's start for tactical purposes (i.e., to try to keep gun owners from mobilizing and re-starting the Second Amendment Sanctuary movement), but before the 2026 session is gaveled in we're definitely going to see a ban on so-called assault weapons. In fact, I expect several different versions of an "assault weapon" ban with varying components will be introduced. There are a lot of rumors floating around that one bill won't have any exceptions for current owners, who would be forced to turn their guns in, remove them from the state, or risk criminal charges.
Let me put this in plain English for every gun owner in Virginia: the Democrats’ last “assault firearm” bill didn’t just target rifles — it went after pistols that use magazines holding more than 10 rounds, which includes some of the most common handguns in America.
— Tim Anderson (@AssocAnderson) November 13, 2025
And despite… pic.twitter.com/FfArPdNwmT
In 2020, then-Gov. Ralph Northam pushed for a semi-auto ban that would have affected current owners, but ultimately backed off in the hopes of bringing rural Democrats on board. Instead, a handful of Democrat state senators objected to any gun ban bill, and Democrats had to settle for a score of smaller victories, including the establishment of a "red flag" law, "universal" background checks, and a weakening of the state's firearm preemption laws.
Sen. Creigh Deeds, who was one of those objectors five years ago, actually authored an "assault weapons" ban this past session, and there is currently no indication that any Democrat lawmaker in the state would oppose a semi-auto ban, though there may be some fights about the specifics of the legislation.
In addition to a ban on commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms, we can expect a prohibition on commonly-owned magazines that can hold more than ten rounds... and once again, there's no guarantee that existing owners will be exempted.
I'm anticipating multiple bills regulating the storage of firearms, including measures so severe that gun owners would be forced to either actively carry a firearm on their person within their home or keep their gun locked up and unloaded.
We're also likely to see a permit-to-purchase scheme that's substantially similar or identical to the Handgun Qualification License in Maryland. That would require anyone hoping to purchase a pistol to undergo firearms training, including a live-fire test, submit fingerprints, pay a fee, and wait for 30 days (or more) for the Virginia State Police or their county sheriff to issue them a permission slip allowing them to purchase a handgun.
Waiting periods are another strong possibility, though I expect there'll be some debate over the length of the wait. In fact, one of the political strategies that Democrats will probably deploy will be to introduce some wildly draconian bills and then "compromise" on slightly lesser limits. A proposed 14-day waiting period, for instance, could be whittled down to 7-days by Democratic leadership as a way of cosplaying moderation on the issue.
There will be a push to completely repeal the state's firearm preemption law, expand the state's "red flag" law to allow almost anyone to file an Extreme Risk Protection Order petition, adopt more "gun-free zones", add more training requirements to the state's concealed carry law, and perhaps even repeal the state's open carry statute that allows firearms to be openly carried without the need for a permit.
Last year, Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed two dozen gun control bills that were approved by the House and Senate. This year he rejected 15 more. I expect Abigail Spanberger to sign each and every attack on our Second Amendment rights that gets to her desk. The best chance of blocking gun control bills will be in the state Senate, where Democrats only have a 21-19 majority, but the fact that the current makeup of the upper chamber voted in favor of so many gun control bills this year is a sign of just how difficult it's going to be to stop anti-gun legislation from getting to Spanberger for her signature.
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