virginia citizens defense league

Defending Your Right to Defend Yourself

va-alert

Published 1/25/2026

On Monday morning, January 26, at 8am, the Senate Courts of Justice committee is meeting to vote on a long list of gun-control bills!

ACTION ITEM #1

We need everyone to send a prewritten email to their senator. Our system will figure out who your senator is automatically, based on your address. This can be done in under a minute.

Click here to send the email.

ACTION ITEM #2

You can speak at the meeting online, so you don’t have to go to the Capitol to do so. Keep your comments short and they can be as simple as, “I oppose this bill.” NOTE: There are four good bills in the mix: SB 78 (Senator Diggs), SB 79 (Senator Diggs), SB 653 (Senator Mulchi), and SB 723 (Senator Sturtevant). In which case you could say something as simple as, “I support this bill.”

Registration to speak starts at 7:30am on Monday (1/2 hour before the meeting is to begin). Your computer must have a microphone and camera. You can register by clicking here.

DETAILS ON GUN BILLS IN COMMITTEE ON MONDAY

Favorable bills will be in BLUE

VCDL's opinion in italics

SB 27, Senator Carroll Foy, allows a highly regulated industry, the firearms industry, to be sued civilly for a variety of already illegal actions. It also holds the manufacturers and sellers of even the most benign of firearm accessories, like a butt stock or a gun case, liable to a civil lawsuit if it doesn’t “properly” protect that item from theft or misuse by a criminal!

How could a firearm accessory seller reasonably know if they were selling a gun sling or a holster to a prohibited person? If an automobile parts store sells a seat cover to a driver who subsequently drives drunk and kills a family, it would make no sense to allow the store and the seat cover manufacturer to be sued. This bill is designed to have a chilling effect on all aspects of the firearms industry and nothing else.

SB 38, Senator Favola, requires a person with a protective order against them or a person with a domestic violence conviction to surrender, sell, or turn their guns over to someone 21-years-old or older and someone who does not live with them. It requires the person to be advised that if a police officer believes they have not turned over all their guns, that the officer can get a search warrant to look for any such guns.

There are multiple problems with the bill as written. If a husband and wife co-own a shotgun for home defense, for example, and the husband gets a protective order issued against him, the wife would no longer have access to that co-owned shotgun. That punishes the wife and needlessly endangers her life. There is also the question of not allowing a person 18 to 20-years-old to retain the guns. A person in that age range can legally possess rifles, shotguns, and handguns. Why can’t young adults be used to hold the guns?

SB 78, Senator Diggs, raises the mandatory minimum sentence for a repeat violent predator who uses a firearm in commission of a violent crime from 5 years to 10 years.

Locking repeat violent offenders away from the public for extended periods of time will lower violent crime rates.

SB 79, Senator Diggs, exempts highway rest areas from the state agency gun ban. Rest areas are not even remotely considered a “sensitive government building.”

Rest areas are open to the public 24/7 and have no assigned security guards. Only two other states, Illinois and New York have a ban in rest areas. Since this gun ban on rest areas has been in place, 4 people were shot in a rest area on I-81: https://www.foxnews.com/us/virginia-rest-stop-shooting-hospital-suspect-found-dead-police. People have been stabbed at rest stops:  https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/crime/sheriff-17-year-old-stabbed-at-virginia-rest-stop/291-504255229 and https://patch.com/virginia/manassas/suicide-linked-manassas-rest-area-stabbing-state-police. According to the website used by the Virginia State Police for criminal statistics, https://va.beyond2020.com/, there were 66 rest area crimes in 2020, 57 in 2021, 82 in 2022, 69 in 2023, and 60 in 2024. Those crimes include aggravated assault, negligent manslaughter, kidnapping/abduction, forceable rape, forceable sodomy, and forceable fondling.

SB 115, Senator Pekarsky, severely restricts concealed handgun permit recognition with other states.  Currently, Virginia honors permits from all other states, which, in turn, allows Virginians to be able to carry in most of those states. Virginia residents may not use a permit from another state to carry in Virginia. They must have a Virginia permit.

Permit holders from other states have been peacefully carrying in Virginia for years.  This bill is an unjust and demeaning slap in the face to law-abiding Virginia gun owners, as it will reduce the number of states where a Virginia permit holder can carry a handgun for self-defense. This bill makes Virginians who are traveling less safe! It will also discourage gun owners outside of Virginia from visiting the Commonwealth, effecting the state’s economy. This bill is a solution in search of a problem.

SB 160, Senator Perry, makes battery in a “dating relationship” a misdemeanor and takes away the right to purchase, possess, or transport a firearm for three years.

Misdemeanors should never take away a civil right.

SB 173, Senator Williams Graves, prohibits firearms, or knives with a blade longer than 3.5 inches, in facilities that provide mental health services or developmental services, including hospitals, emergency departments, or emergency medical care facilities, if they offer such services.

Disarming visitors and guests, including concealed handgun permit holders, at such facilities violates their right to protect themselves in an emergency. A U.S. District Court in the 2^nd Circuit has restrained enforcement of just such a law for being unconstitutional under New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen Supreme Court ruling.

SB 272, Senator Deeds, restricts firearms at public institutions of higher education by requiring such firearms be part of an authorized program or activity inside a building.

A solution in search of a problem. Higher education students are adults and have a right to self-defense.

SB 312, Senator Ebbin, bans the carry of 1) a semi-automatic centerfire rifle or pistol that has a fixed magazine that holds more than 10 rounds or 2) a semi-automatic centerfire rifle or pistol that accepts a detachable magazine of any size and has any of a variety of cosmetic features or 3) a semi-automatic shotgun with a fixed magazine that holds more than 7 rounds of the longest ammunition for which it is chambered or has a detachable magazine of any size, with any of a variety of cosmetic features, on or about a person on a public street, road, alley, sidewalk, public right-of-way, in a park, or in any place open to the public.

Under this bill, a person couldn’t even carry such a firearm from the gun store, which is open to the public, to their car! It doesn’t matter if the firearm is unloaded. Concealed handgun permit holders and licensed security guards are no longer exempt from this code section, even though neither one has caused any legal issues by carrying such loaded firearms publicly for over a decade. Of course, the government, our servant, exempts itself from all this nonsense. The U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that citizens have the right to carry firearms outside of their homes and in public, so this bill is unconstitutional on its face.

SB 323, Senator Ebbin, makes unfinished firearm frames and receivers and un-serialized commercially made firearms unlawful to possess, purchase, sell, or transfer unless they are serialized.

Even a chunk of aluminum, if sold to the public to become a frame or receiver once completed, must be serialized under this bill. The bill doesn’t grandfather existing homemade firearms. This bill is unconstitutional, as there was no analog in the history or traditions of firearms with any such limitations at the time the Bill of Rights was adopted. Homemade guns have been legal since before the United States existed. And, of course, government, our servant, exempts itself from all this foolishness.

SB 348, Senator Boysko, requires all firearms in a home, that are not being carried on or about a person, to be unloaded and placed in a locked container if there is a minor in the home or if there is a prohibited person in the home. A gun may only be stored loaded if it is in a biometric safe. Gun dealers must post signage about the law and there is also a provision to educate the public on firearm storage. Biometric safes are more expensive than non-biometric safes.

Biometric safes can be unreliable when being used under stress and they also require batteries to work. Why are biometric safes the only option for storing a loaded firearm? There are plenty of other locking mechanisms for safes that are just as secure.

SB 364, Senator Carroll Foy, creates a state agency named the Virginia Center for Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention.

The Center would only be targeting violence committed using firearms and ignoring the root causes of crime, as well as all the other ways violence is inflicted on victims – knives, blunt objects, hands and feet, etc.  Half of violent crimes are not committed with a firearm!  The term “Gun Violence” in the name of the agency gives away the true agenda: “gun violence” is a term coined by the gun-control lobby to blame guns, which are inanimate objects, and not the criminals that misuse guns.  If a police officer shoots someone, the officer gets the blame, not his gun.  But, if a criminal shoots someone, the gun gets the blame and not the criminal.  No one says, “tire iron violence” or “hand and feet violence.”  Instead, it is just called “violence.”  But there is a disarmament agenda with firearms and “gun violence” is just an excuse to go after firearms with more useless gun control.

SB 496, Senator Marsden, eliminates the ability to transport a long gun to or from a place of purchase or repair! The bill also requires a handgun in an unattended vehicle to be stored in a locked hard-sided container that is placed out of plain view.

Long guns cannot be taken home after a purchase, and they can’t be taken to a gunsmith for repair, unless you are careful to keep them constantly in plain view! Not all gun safes can be “hidden from plain view” based on the kind of vehicle or the kind of safe.

SB 643, Senator Surovell, requires a person to have a permit to purchase a firearm (“permit”), which is good for 5 years. To qualify for a permit, the applicant must have had his fingerprints taken and have had firearms training within the last two years. The training must be approved by the Department of Criminal Justice Services and include live fire of at least 10 rounds. Persons under 21-years-old cannot apply for a permit and are thus prohibited from buying firearms. A person renting a gun, persons with dual residency, and out of state residents purchasing long guns must have a permit. In a private sale, the purchaser must have a verified permit. The State Police can charge whatever fee they feel covers their cost in processing the permit application and can take as long as 45 days to issue the permit. Local law enforcement will be notified that you have been issued or denied a permit. This bill adds new misdemeanor prohibitors from getting a permit. The bill also removes the exemption from One Handgun a Month by CHP holders.

This bill will get innocent people killed, as it will take at least two months before a person can purchase their first firearm. If they are purchasing that firearm for urgent self-defense, that is simply too long. The price to get a permit, which will likely be in the hundreds of dollars, will be prohibitive for poor people and is the equivalent of a poll tax. And even with all the hoops to get a permit, even citizens with concealed handgun permits will be limited to one handgun a month. Local law-enforcement will be handed a registry of gun owners. And gun rentals at shooting ranges will not be possible for people who have not yet got their permit or are visiting from out of state or from another country.

SB 653, Senator Mulchi, requires that a Red Flag order has a sworn statement from the officer or the alleged abused person specifying the grounds for the order. The sworn statement will be attached to the order when served to the person who is the subject of the order.

This will help prevent vengeful misuse of Red Flag orders and the person being served will at least know why the order was given.

SB 723, Senator Sturtevant, allows someone without a concealed handgun permit, but who would qualify for one, to carry a concealed handgun anywhere they could lawfully open carry a handgun.

Twenty-nine states now have Permitless Carry, none have repealed it, and more states are expected to follow suit. Neighboring Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia are all Permitless Carry states, with North Carolina expected to do so in the near future.

SB 727, Senator Jones, prohibits the carry of certain loaded semi-automatic rifles, pistols, or shotguns on any public street, road, alley, sidewalk, public right-of-way, or in any public park or any other place of whatever nature that is open to the public in the Commonwealth. This used to only apply to the cities of Alexandria, Chesapeake, Fairfax, Falls Church, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, or Virginia Beach and the Counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Henrico, Loudoun, or Prince William.

This expansion of the prohibition on the carry of certain firearms is a solution in search of a problem.

SB 749, Senator Salim, prohibits the sale, possession, transfer, and transport of an “assault firearm” made on or after July 1, 2026. It also prohibits sale, possession, transfer, and transport of an “assault firearm” to anyone under the age of 21. Magazines that hold more than 10 rounds and were made on or after July 1, 2026, are prohibited.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said in both DC v Heller, and recently The New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v Bruen, that any firearm “in common use” is protected by the Second Amendment. The guns and magazines targeted by this bill are among the most common guns and magazines in the United States, making this bill unconstitutional. There are conservatively estimated to be over 20 million AR-15s and 700 million magazines that hold more than 10 rounds in civilian hands.

SB 797, Senator Carroll Foy, requires a person to have a permit to purchase a firearm (“permit”), which is good for 5 years. To qualify for a permit, the applicant must have had his fingerprints taken and have had firearms training within the last two years. The training must be approved by the Department of Criminal Justice Services and include live fire of at least 10 rounds. Persons under 21-years-old cannot apply for a permit and are thus prohibited from buying firearms. A person renting a gun, persons with dual residency, and out of state residents purchasing long guns must have a permit. In a private sale, the purchaser must have a verified permit. The State Police can charge whatever fee they feel covers their cost in processing the permit application and can take as long as 45 days to issue the permit. Local law enforcement will be notified that you have been issued or denied a permit.