Virginia is moving fast on this stuff, and if you carry, own ARs, or have friends and family there, the details matter more than the headlines.

"Any person who imports, sells, manufactures, purchases, or transfers an 'assault firearm' as defined in § 18.2-308.2:2 is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. A subsequent conviction under that section triggers a three-year prohibition on purchasing, possessing, or transporting any firearm."

That second conviction trigger is the part people will miss. First offense is a misdemeanor — bad enough — but catch it twice and you're locked out of purchasing anything for three years. That's not a slap on the wrist for a paperwork technicality.

"A person who lawfully owned an assault firearm before July 1, 2026 may: sell it to a licensed dealer or to someone outside of Virginia who can lawfully possess it... You cannot simply sell or transfer it to a Virginia neighbor who didn't own one before the cutoff."

So you can keep what you have, but it's essentially frozen in place. You can't sell it locally, can't pass it to a buddy in the same zip code. Think about what that does to the used market — grandfathered guns become orphaned assets that can only move out of state or into an estate.

"SB727/HB1524 specifically targets the carrying and transportation of these configured firearms in public spaces, even for owners who grandfathered their firearms under the sales ban."

This is the one that bites you even if you did everything right. You kept the rifle, stored it legally, and now transporting it to the range might be a crime depending on configuration. Grandfathering your ownership doesn't grandfather your ability to use it the way you've always used it.

"HB916 would expand the curriculum requirements for Virginia CHP classes and — significantly — eliminate the National Rifle Association and United States Concealed Carry Association courses from the code as qualifying courses for the permit process."

Stripping NRA and USCCA courses from the approved list is a squeeze on access, not safety. Those are the two most widely available qualification courses in the country. If Virginia scrubs them and replaces them with a narrower approved list, people in rural counties where options are already limited are going to feel that first.

"If you bought an 80% lower or unfinished frame before the law's effective date, the bill would still expose you to liability for possessing it if you haven't completed and serialized it — or if you have completed it into an unserialized firearm."

That's retroactive liability on a legal purchase — something you bought, legally, under existing law, becoming a criminal matter after the fact. If you're in Virginia and have unfinished lowers sitting in the safe, the clock on that decision is April 13.

For anyone who's lived in a state that went through a major legal overhaul like this — California, Colorado, New York — what's the one thing you wish you'd done before the effective date that you didn't get around to in time?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By BGC Editorial

Virginia Firearms Laws: What's Changing in 2026

Virginia Firearms Laws: What's Changing in 2026

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