The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed two separate lawsuits against the states of Virginia and California over their recently created laws that the department alleges present an unconstitutional ban on common firearms.
In its complaint filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the DOJ said Virginia’s law effectively criminalizes the purchase of AR-15-style rifles, which it said are the most popular rifles in the country. The department noted that tens of millions of Americans across the country own the semi-automatic rifles.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Virginia lawsuit is an attempt to protect Virginians’ Second Amendment rights. He said the constitutional amendment “is not a second-class right” and suggested he would file similar challenges in other jurisdictions.
Meanwhile, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said, “Law-abiding Americans should not have to live under threat of criminal sanction for simply exercising their Second Amendment right to possess arms owned by millions of their fellow citizens.”
The suit challenges a Virginia law that established a Class 1 misdemeanor for anyone who sells, manufactures, imports, purchases, or transfers what the commonwealth says are “assault firearms” and certain types of “large capacity magazines,” which it defines as a magazine that holds more than 15 rounds.
The law, which went into effect on Wednesday, is similar to laws that have been passed in states like California, Illinois, and New York that ban certain semi-automatic rifles. However, unlike Virginia, many states that ban larger-capacity magazines define those ammunition feeding devices as ones that carry 11 or more rounds.
Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, signed the bill into law in mid-May and explained it’s “because firearms designed to inflict maximum casualties do not belong on our streets,” referring to AR-15 rifles.
“We are taking this step to protect families and support the law enforcement officers who work every day to keep our communities safe,” she said.
Gun-control groups, including Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action, hailed the measure and said it would save lives.
The DOJ said in a news release that the law would deprive “the citizens of Virginia of their constitutional right to buy and sell arms protected by the Second Amendment.”
In the lawsuit, the DOJ argued that the ban violates a legal framework established under the Supreme Court’s 2022 landmark ruling, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which evaluates the constitutionality of modern firearms laws under the Second Amendment to determine whether they align with the United States’ historical tradition around gun regulations.
“There is no historical tradition of banning arms in common use,” Wednesday’s lawsuit said. “Therefore, the Second Amendment protects the right of law-abiding Americans to possess and use weapons that are in common use for lawful purposes.”
Because the statute bans the purchase and sale of AR-15s and “Americans own and use for lawful purposes tens of millions of AR-15 style rifles,” the law should be overturned, the DOJ argued. Later in the lawsuit, it cited a report from the National Shooting Sports Foundation that said there were at least 28 million AR-style semi-automatic rifles in the United States as of 2021.
California Lawsuit
Also on Wednesday, the DOJ filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California challenging a “Glock ban” in California that prohibits the purchase of handguns made by Glock or firearms with similar firing mechanisms, which the DOJ said would further restrict the types of handguns that can be lawfully owned in the state.
“California cannot ban the most popular type of handgun in America,” Blanche said. “We will work to stop this blatant trampling of our rights by the California government to protect the rights of lawful gun owners.”
