There are currently 16 Commonwealth's Attorneys and 10 sheriffs in Virginia who have stated on the record that they have no intention of enforcing the impending ban on manufacturing, selling, transferring, and publicly carrying so-called assault weapons. There are also at least two Democrat lawmakers who have stated on the record that they're ready to push for the power to remove those law enforcement officers from office if they don't go along with the Democrats' gun ban plans.
🚨RETALIATION?: Virginia Insider's Uriah Kiser asks Democrat St. Sen. Louise Lucas about the commonwealth's attorneys & sheriffs who will not enforce Virginia's unconstitutional "assault firearms" & standard capacity magazine bans: https://t.co/epPXirx7uh
— Virginia News Vanguard (@VaNewsVanguard) June 16, 2026
State Senator Louise Lucas joins Delegate Joshua Cole, who previously told local media that if prosecutors and sheriffs won't enforce the gun and magazine ban, lawmakers need to look at "what type of legislation can we introduce to hold them accountable for not doing their job."
Del. Joshua Cole (D-Fredericksburg), a Democrat who represents parts of Spotsylvania County, called the prosecutors' stance purely political.
"When we pass a law, it is their constitutional responsibility to enforce those laws," Cole said. "We make the laws, the courts will determine if it's constitutional or not, but as of January, of July 1, when those bills go into effect, those are our laws, and they have to be carried out as such."
Democrats were singing a different tune just six years ago, when they passed a law that explicitly demands judges accept motions to dismiss filed by commonwealth's attorneys unless there is evidence of bribery or certain forms of unlawful bias against a victim.
While Cole wasn't in the legislature at the time, Sen. Lucas was, and she was a "yes" vote on the measure giving prosecutors unfettered discretion in charging violations of the law. Of course, back then the issue was progressive prosecutors refusing to enforce marijuana laws, and Lucas owns and operates a cannabis-related business. From both a personal and political perspective, she had every reason to support prosecutorial discretion.
Still, it's more than a little hypocritical for Lucas to suddenly change her position now that we're talking about guns and not ganja possession.
Democrats may try to include a repeal of that 2020 statute when lawmakers return to Richmond to try to hammer out a budget agreement in coming days, but I suspect that any attempt to retaliate against Commonwealth's Attorneys will take place during next year's legislative session. I'll also go on the record and predict that if the statute is repealed, we'll simply see unwritten policies adopted by sheriffs and prosecutors.
I had an email from a reader on Monday who recently spoke to his local Commonwealth's Attorney about the impending gun and magazine ban. I'll leave out the county in question, but according to our loyal reader the prosecutor said he has no intention of prosecuting any infractions, nor does the sheriff apparently any intention to make any arrests.
The prosecutor, however, also said he has no intention of ever making public statement to that effect. Despite the statute I mentioned above, he believes the Attorney General could recuse him or even remove him from office for perceived insubordination.
I believe § 19.2-265.6 of the Virginia code would cover the Commonwealth's Attorney's rear end, at least for now, but if the statute is ever repealed, my guess is this particular prosecutor is going to have a lot of company across the state.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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