A bill banning AR-15s and other popular semiautomatic rifles, as well as magazines holding more than 15 rounds of ammunition, cleared the Virginia legislature Monday and is headed to Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D) desk.
The legislation, SB 749, states that “importing, selling, purchasing, or transferring a prohibited firearm would be a Class 1 misdemeanor,” Ammoland News noted.
It also “restricts the sale or transfer of certain large-capacity magazines defined in the statute.”
WRIC reported that SB 749 also bans a number of semiautomatic shotguns and certain semiautomatic, centerfire pistols.
Virginia state Sen. Mark Obenshain (R) said SB 749 is “one of the more extreme bills that is gonna pass this year.”
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He added, “The people who are gonna obey this law, they’re gonna be the law-abiders, they’re not gonna be the people who engage in the mass shootings or other criminal conduct.”
SB 749 takes effect July 1, 2026.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
