Big-name national gun control groups got what they paid for last week as the oldest continuous legislative body in America voted to pass a ban on popular semi-automatic firearms. 

The Virginia House of Delegates last Friday gave a 51-49 approval, strictly along party lines, to HB 2, a legislative priority to Democrats who control the body by a one-seat majority. The measure, if signed into law, would institute a series of arbitrary new restrictions on semi-auto firearms capable of accepting a magazine that could hold more than 20 rounds of ammunition. This would include a ban on the sale of guns in the state made after July 2024. 
 

The razor-thin polarity of the Virginia House shifted last November following a $1.5 million investment in the 2023 statewide elections by Bloomberg-backed Everytown, with the group saying at the time, "We look forward to working with Virginia’s gun sense majority to protect — and build on — the state’s gun safety laws.”

HB 2 heads to the Democrat-controlled Virginia state Senate for further consideration, which could send it to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin's desk. Something of a moderate, Youngkin has not said if he would veto the measure but has gone on record in the past voicing opposition to new gun control measures. Only eight states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Maryland) have such bans. 

Meanwhile, pro-Second Amendment groups such as the Firearms Policy Coalition are already promising to see the state in court should the ban become law.