Second Amendment

Virginia's New 'Assault Firearm' Ban Is Plainly Unconstitutional, a Federal Lawsuit Argues

Three Second Amendment groups say the law violates the right to own arms in common use for self-defense and other lawful purposes.

Jacob Sullum | 5.15.2026 2:00 PM

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Last month, Virginia became the 12th state to enact an "assault weapon" ban, which Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed into law on April 13. That new law is plainly unconstitutional, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and two other Second Amendment groups argue in McDonald v. Katz, a lawsuit they filed on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

"Spanberger's insane law criminalizes constitutionally protected conduct and bans arms the Second Amendment protects," said FPC President Brandon Combs. "We're going to force Governor Spanberger and other government thugs to follow the Constitution and respect the Second Amendment, full stop."

Virginia's law resembles other "assault weapon" bans, which typically define that category based on arbitrarily disfavored gun features. The law makes it a crime to manufacture, import, sell, purchase, or transfer "assault firearms," which it defines to include semiautomatic center-fire rifles that accept detachable magazines and have any of five listed features: 1) a folding or adjustable stock, 2) a thumbhole stock or pistol grip, 3) a second handgrip or protruding grip that can be held by the nontrigger hand, 4) a grenade launcher, or 5) a threaded barrel that can be used to attach a muzzle break, a muzzle compensator, a sound suppressor, or a flash suppressor.

That definition encompasses some of the most popular firearms sold in the United States, including AR-15-style rifles. In January, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the gun industry's trade association, reported that Americans own more than 32 million "modern sporting rifles," its preferred term for the models covered by bans like Virginia's.

Survey data suggest that somewhere between 16 million and 25 million Americans have owned AR-15-style rifles. They commonly report using them for lawful purposes such as self-defense, hunting, and target shooting.

Such rifles are rarely used by criminals. "According to FBI statistics over the decade from 2014 to 2023, rifles of any type were used in an average of 380 homicides per year," the FPC, the National Rifle Association, and the Second Amendment Foundation note in their lawsuit. "Even if every one of those homicides had........

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