Virginia lawmakers just advanced one of the most aggressive “assault weapon” bills in recent memory, and as Colion Noir points out, the danger isn’t in what Senate Bill 749 claims to target. It’s in what it actually criminalizes.
SB 749 doesn’t focus on violent crime. It doesn’t hinge on how a firearm is used. Instead, it zeroes in on possession, redefining a broad category of commonly owned firearms and magazines as illegal based largely on cosmetic features.
AR-15–style rifles, certain pistols and shotguns, and magazines holding more than ten rounds are all swept into the bill’s reach.
And that distinction matters.
Under the bill’s language, two firearms that function identically can be treated completely differently under the law simply because one has a listed feature and the other doesn’t. That’s not a functional standard. It’s an appearance test.
As Noir notes, this is how bans move forward without lawmakers having to explain why a grip, a stock, or a barrel shroud suddenly turns a legal firearm into a public safety threat.
Supporters lean heavily on the familiar “weapons of war” framing, comparing civilian-owned rifles to military hardware. But as Noir points out, that comparison collapses under even light scrutiny. An AR-15 is not a select-fire military rifle, and the lethality argument doesn’t change based on aesthetics. The rhetoric may be emotionally effective, but it’s technically thin.
Where the bill really escalates is with a committee substitute that removes grandfathering protections. That means Virginians who legally purchased standard-capacity magazines (or firearms that were perfectly lawful at the time) could become criminals overnight without doing anything new. No misuse. No violent act. Just ownership.
Even supporters of the legislation acknowledge the obvious: criminals aren’t the ones who will comply. Criminals don’t care about feature lists or magazine limits. The people who do care are the ones trying to follow the law, and SB 749 expands the definition of “criminal” to include them.
That reality is underscored by what lawmakers didn’t advance. A proposal to increase penalties for the criminal use or display of firearms during felonies was rejected. In other words, the legislature declined to get tougher on actual violent misuse while simultaneously broadening penalties for possession, transport, and ownership.
SB 749 doesn’t just ban sales. It criminalizes importing, manufacturing, buying, owning, or transporting covered firearms. That’s not a misuse statute; it’s an existence clause. Touch it, move it, or already have it, and you’re on the wrong side of the law.
As Noir frames it, Virginia isn’t necessarily the end goal. It’s the test case. Redefine what’s “normal,” criminalize possession, label it safety, and see what sticks. If it works once, the idea travels.
And that’s the part gun owners nationwide are watching closely.
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