Virginia is getting an awful lot of attention lately, but when you've got an off-year election and an AG candidate fantasizing about gunning down his rivals, it tends to lead to eyes being directed on your state.
But it's not just the election that's drawing some attention.
It seems anti-gunners in the Old Dominion State just got their posteriors handed to them in the circuit court, thanks to a case that has Gun Owners of America and the Gun Owners Foundation in a very good mood.
In a landmark decision affirming Second Amendment protections, a Virginia circuit court struck down the state’s universal background check law for private firearm sales, granting a permanent injunction that bars the law’s enforcement statewide. The ruling in Wilson, et al. v. Colonel Matthew D. Hanley, highlights fatal constitutional flaws in the statute, rendering it completely unenforceable.
The Court declared Virginia Code § 18.2-308.2:5 unconstitutional, particularly due to its discriminatory impact on law-abiding adults aged 18-20. The Court then granted our request to enjoin the administration and enforcement of the law across the entire Commonwealth of Virginia.
Erich Pratt, Senior Vice President of Gun Owners of America, issued the following statement:
“This decision vindicates the rights of all Virginians to engage in lawful private firearm transfers without unconstitutional barriers. The Act’s enforcement mechanism was fatally flawed from the start—criminalizing everyday citizens while ignoring basic constitutional principles. We’re grateful the court recognized that patchwork fixes can’t save a broken law.”
John Velleco, Executive Vice President of Gun Owners Foundation, issued the following statement:
“We are thrilled the judge struck down Virginia’s universal background check law because it was unconstitutionally blocking young adults from exercising their Second Amendment rights. This ruling upholds the true meaning of the Constitution by ensuring all law-abiding citizens can acquire firearms without arbitrary government barriers.”
The Virginia Citizens Defense League was also a plaintiff in this lawsuit, along with GOA and GOF.
So just like that, universal background checks are dead in Virginia.
That is huge.
It shouldn't be, but far too often, we've seen challenges to universal background checks upheld on some shaky reasoning, but it's mostly because the judges in question really like them, and so they'll engage in judicial contortions to justify them however they can. It's not because they're right or even useful.
That's especially true in a universe where the Bruen decision exists. There's no historical precedent for universal background checks, from either the time of incorporation or the ratification of the Second Amendment. Any claim that it's justified is absolute nonsense.
The Virginia court made the correct ruling.
I particularly like how the reasoning is that it prevents adults under 21 from purchasing guns. That's absolutely correct, as the prohibition for handgun sales to that demographic is federal in nature, but there's no prohibition on ownership. The avenue left to them in every state is face-to-face transfers, but universal background checks make that impossible.
In some states, that's a feature, not a bug, which is an even bigger problem. These are legal adults. They're supposed to have the totality of their civil liberties. Under the Constitution, they're barred from seeking certain offices until they're of legal age, but that's not a justification to keep them from enjoying any of their rights, particularly those in the Bill of Rights.
But they do it, and this decision won't extend beyond the borders of Virginia, unfortunately.
I hope Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, decides to let this one lie. As it stands, he's leading in the polls against Jay Jones for some strange reason--maybe homicide against rivals and hoping that rival sees his children gunned down doesn't sit well with a lot of voters? Or maybe it's something else. If he can hold, it'll be his call, and there's no reason he should pursue it.
Here's hoping.
