By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Immediately after Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed Senate Bill 749, banning the sale, purchase, importation, manufacture or transfer of so-called “assault firearms” in the Old Dominion, the legislation was challenged in both federal and state courts.
Filing a federal lawsuit are the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition and two private citizens, Anthony Groenevelt and Justin McDonald. Their complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division.
The federal case is known as McDonald v. Katz.
Named as defendants are Col. Jeffrey Katz, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, Goochland County Commonwealth’s Attorney John L. Lumpkins, Jr., Goochland County Sheriff Steven Creasey, Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth and Prince William County Sheriff Glendell Hill. Gov. Spanberger is not a named defendant.
Plaintiffs are represented by attorneys David H. Thompson, Peter A Patterson and William V. Bergstrom with Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C. and P. Thomas DiStanislao and Michael H. Brady at Whiteford, Taylor and Preston in Richmond.
The 24-page federal complaint states, “The plain text of the Second Amendment protects the conduct the Plaintiffs seek to engage in because it “extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding.” By prohibiting Plaintiffs from acquiring common semiautomatic firearms and ammunition magazines, Virginia has prevented them from “keeping and bearing Arms” within the meaning of the Amendment’s text. As a result, “[t]o justify its regulation, the government . . . must demonstrate that the regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
“Here,” the complaint adds, “Defendants will not be able to demonstrate any such thing. Heller and Bruen have already established the only historical practice that allows a particular type of arm to be banned—historical restrictions on dangerous and unusual weapons…Arms that are in common use—as the firearms and magazines Virginia has banned unquestionably are— cannot be unusual or dangerous. Therefore, they cannot be banned, and the Virginia laws challenged herein must be declared unconstitutional by a court competent to do so.”
Almost simultaneously, NRA and its partners filed a lawsuit in state court challenging the “assault firearms” ban, asserting in their complaint that the newly-signed gun ban violates Article 1, Section 13 of the Virginia Constitution.
NRA is joined by the Virginia Shooting Sports Association, Middletown Firearms, Middletown Training, Virginia Pride Ltd., and VSSA members Joseph Santolla, Reagan Adams, James Rowe, Robert Pride, and Stephen Bokmiller. The case is known as Santolla v. Katz and will be heard in the Washington Circuit Court.
In announcing the federal lawsuit, SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb stated, “Virginia lawmakers lied to their constituents and to themselves when they said these laws weren’t bans. A new sales and transfer ban is a ban that’s just one generation removed. On July 1, anyone turning 18 in Virginia will find out that the rights enjoyed by their predecessors don’t apply to them. These bans are an afront to the Constitution and an insult to the intelligence of Virginians who were fed lies and misrepresentations by their elected officials. We’re excited to fast track this case to the Supreme Court.”
“It’s wild that lawmakers who each take an oath to uphold the Constitution insist on passing bills purposefully designed to gut it,” added SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “The firearms and magazines banned in this law aren’t bizarre and unusual outliers, they’re among the most commonly owned guns and magazines in the country. They’re owned in the tens of millions by peaceable Americans who use them overwhelmingly lawfully. Virginia has now joined the minority of radical states to ban these constitutionally protected firearms, and in so doing, joined the club of states we’re suing over it.”
WRIC News quoted a statement from NRA regarding the state lawsuit. The organization declared, “As promised, we are taking Abigail Spanberger to court…Throughout the legislative session, the NRA and our members fought Richmond’s radical gun control package tooth and nail. We made it clear that this extreme anti-gun proposal, which bans the new purchase of commonly owned firearms and standard capacity magazines in the Commonwealth, is a blatant violation of Second Amendment rights and an affront to landmark Supreme Court cases.”
