Virginia's "assault firearm" and magazine ban is six weeks out, and the injunction hearings meant to stop it are getting buried in procedural sand. This is worth watching closely — not just for Virginians, but because these legal strategies have a way of spreading.

"It is entirely plausible that the Panel may take several months to have proceedings and issue a decision, by which point the Plaintiffs and those whose interests they represent will have suffered ongoing and irreparable harm for months."

That's the whole game right there. You don't have to win the legal argument if you can just delay it long enough that the law is already on the books. Unwinding an active ban is a completely different legal fight than blocking one before it takes effect — and the AG knows that.

AG Jones is claiming the Virginia Constitution doesn't protect an individual right to keep and bear arms — and that even if it did, it wouldn't cover AR-15s and similar rifles banned under the law.

That argument is aggressive to the point of being almost useful — because if a court takes it seriously, it forces a clear ruling rather than letting things die in procedural delay. The Washington County hearing on June 25 is now the only realistic firewall before July 1.

If you own standard-capacity magazines or any rifle that would fall under Virginia's definition, the window to stop this before it becomes an unwinding problem is measured in weeks, not months. Anyone tracking how the Washington County judge is approaching this compared to Lancaster County?

Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett