Democratic Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones asked a court to throw out a suit against the state’s ban on modern semi-automatic firearms, ignoring multiple rulings by the United States Supreme Court in his filing.
Washington County Circuit Judge Jeffrey Campbell issued a statewide injunction blocking enforcement of SB 749, informing Jones and other officials that the order would take effect July 21. In the filing, Jones’ office argued that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution was not implication by the Virginia legislation, instead arguing that it was only tied to militia service, a finding by the Supreme Court in the 1939 case of United States v. Miller which was overturned in 2008.
“Contrary to Plaintiffs’ assertions, federal Second Amendment doctrine does not control the meaning of § 13 in this case,” the motion to dismiss claimed. “Given the history of § 13, federal law cannot displace the provision’s text, structure, and ratification history. Va. Const. Art I, § 13’s text and history establish a collective, militia-tethered right: a guarantee of a collective right tied to militia service; not a freestanding guarantee.”
Jones’ office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The Supreme Court rejected the militia argument in its 2008 Heller vs. District of Columbia decision, when it invalidated Washington, D.C.’s handgun ban after ruling that the Second Amendment protected an individual right to keep and bear arms. The filing from Jones’ office only mentioned Heller in the context of allowing regulation of “dangerous and unusual” weapons.
The filing from Virginia neglected to mention the 2010 McDonald v. Chicago decision, the 2022 New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen decision and the June ruling of the high court in Wolford v. Lopez.
The motion to dismiss also made an assertion that “Assault firearms and large-capacity magazines are not in common use today for lawful self-defense.” One of the high-court’s findings in the 2025 case of Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, in the opinion authored by Associate Justice Elena Kagan was that “The AR-15 is the most popular rifle in the country.”
SB 749 bans the AR-15 and other popular rifles. In an article published May 13, The New York Times noted that both the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle (which bears a resemblance to the M16 and M4 select-fire weapons used by the U.S. military) and semiautomatic rifles with cosmetic features or accessories that make them look like fully-automatic AK-47s are popular firearms owned by millions of civilians.
Under the Supreme Court’s rulings in Heller and Bruen, firearms in common use for lawful purposes fall under the Second Amendment’s protection. The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimated in January that over 32 million “modern sporting rifles” were in circulation.
