Virginia Citizens Defense league

Defending Your Right to Defend Yourself

va-alert-Legislative Update

Published 3/4/2026

VCDL Legislative Update 3/2/26



Several bills passed out of the House and Senate and are headed to the Governor’s desk, including one pro-gun bill (HB 101, Delegate Ballard).

If you haven’t yet sent an email to the Governor urging her not to sign gun-control bills, you can do so by clicking here.

Watch for an Urgent Legislative Action Alert before Thursday, as there will be quite a few senate gun-control bills heard on either Thursday and/or Friday. Once we know which bills are being heard and when they are being heard, the alert will go out.

These gun-control bills have passed both bodies between February 23 and March 2 and are now on their way to the Governor’s desk

HB 93, Delegate Bennett-Parker, 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 has probable cause that 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. Young adults should be able to hold the guns.

HB 101, Delegate Ballard, eliminates the requirement that a concealed handgun permit be requested in writing, allowing for other methods of applying for a permit. 

This moves the law into the 21st century, where all kinds of legal document can be submitted online.

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.

HB 626, Delegate Callsen, 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.

HB 702, Delegate Cole, creates a “Firearm Give-Back or Buy-Back Program.” The sole purpose is for local law enforcement, to collect and destroy any firearms that are voluntarily turned in, with exceptions for antiques or “historically significant firearms.” 

Destroying what might be perfectly functional, and possibly quite valuable, firearms is a waste of money. The localities could offset any costs by selling the firearms to licensed gun dealers through an auction. The name of the program implies that the Commonwealth gives firearms to citizens and now wants citizens to give them back. That is not the case. This program is a “turn in” and not a “give-back” program.

HB 909, Delegate Shin, expands the prohibition on the carry of firearms from 40 feet to 100 feet outside of a polling place or outside a building where the local electoral board is meeting. 

Even 40 feet was too much considering that there was never an issue with citizens lawfully carrying a firearm for self-defense at polling places or outside buildings where local electoral boards meet. This bill will increase the chance of innocent gun owners being entrapped if carrying a firearm and unaware of the arbitrary boundary set in this bill.

HB 1071, Delegate Laufer, requires training on how to use Red Flag laws by threat assessment teams in public elementary and secondary schools and public institutions of higher education. 

Red Flag laws do not provide any help for someone suffering from a mental health crisis and they do not provide due process for weeks after someone’s firearms are seized.