The Justice Department sued Virginia on Wednesday over its ban on the sale and purchase of high-capacity semiautomatic weapons, which took effect this week, arguing the law is unconstitutional and targets a political fiction.
Filed in Richmond federal court, the lawsuit challenges SB749, which makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to import, sell, manufacture, purchase or transfer firearms the state labels "assault firearms" — weapons with features like folding or collapsible stocks, thumbhole stocks, or protruding pistol grips, excluding only those limited to .22 caliber rimfire ammunition, reported Courthouse News Service.
“The term ‘assault firearm’ is not a technical term used in the firearms industry,” DOJ wrote in the complaint. “In the real world (as opposed to the fevered imaginations of some politicians), the rifles that the statute calls ‘assault firearms’ include ordinary semiautomatic rifles lawfully possessed and used by millions of law-abiding Americans.”
The DOJ argued that the law fails the two-pronged test set by the Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen decision, which requires that regulated conduct fall outside Second Amendment protection and that states show a historical analog for the restriction. DOJ contends AR-15-style rifles are commonly owned for lawful purposes, including self-defense, and that no historical tradition supports banning such widely used weapons.
"The Constitution is not a suggestion, and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right," Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon noted DOJ had warned Gov. Abigail Spanberger in April that signing the bill would trigger legal action.
A spokesperson for Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said the state would defend the law, calling the suit a "misuse of the Civil Rights Division."
DOJ acknowledged the Fourth Circuit upheld a similar Maryland ban in Bianchi v. Brown but argued it was wrongly decided — a claim gaining relevance after the Supreme Court said Tuesday it would review semiautomatic bans in Illinois and Connecticut.
The suit follows state-court injunctions in Washington and Lancaster counties already blocking enforcement in parts of Virginia, and comes amid a broader wave of legal challenges to laws passed by the state's Democratic-controlled legislature, including a separate law restricting ICE officials' use of masks that a federal judge blocked Tuesday.