Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) signed a series of gun control bills on Friday that include legislation regulating firearm manufacturers’ liability, ghost guns, and partners of individuals charged with misdemeanor domestic violence.
The legislation, approved by Virginia’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly, includes a bill that allows gun manufacturers and dealers to be held legally accountable for “negligent” business practices leading to gun violence, a move gun rights activists call dangerous.
The measure creates a legal pathway for victims to sue companies that fail to implement reasonable safeguards in the sale and distribution of firearms.
Philip Van Cleave, the president of Virginia Citizens Defense League, said the new law making manufacturers and dealers liable for gun violence creates a path for not only dealers, but also gun accessory sellers to be subject to lawsuits.
“This one basically allows frivolous lawsuits against anybody for doing anything with firearms,” Van Cleave said. “Doesn’t mean you’re a gun manufacturer. Doesn’t even mean you’re a gun dealer. You could be making holsters. You could be making a strap for a rifle.”
Van Cleave said the legislation only hurts business owners and has no real effect on public safety.
“They’re not really trying to make the public safe,” he said. “This one’s going to make manufacturers hesitant to sell into Virginia, because it opens them up to these frivolous lawsuits.”
Another piece of legislation addresses domestic violence-related firearm restrictions. Spanberger signed a bill that had bipartisan backing to close what is referred to as the “intimate partner loophole,” prohibiting significant others of misdemeanor domestic violence crimes from possessing a firearm.
A similar bill clarifies how individuals subject to protective orders or domestic violence convictions can transfer firearms they are no longer legally allowed to possess. Under the measure, firearms may be transferred to a qualified third party who is at least 21 years old and does not reside in the same household.
Van Cleave cases of domestic violence are not “one size fits all,” and the new legislation only bars people who have experienced it from protecting themselves.
“Our problem with these bills is they keep [using] misdemeanor crimes, minor crimes, by definition, a minor crime, and taking away somebody’s basic civil right to self-defense,” he said. “Maybe a girlfriend comes up and pushes her boyfriend, and they go to court, and she loses her gun rights for years. For a push, … no big deal. It was a minor thing.”
Also included in Friday’s signings was a ban on the manufacture, sale, and possession of so-called ghost guns, firearms assembled from kits or parts that lack serial numbers, making them difficult for law enforcement to trace.
Van Cleave said homemade guns have been around since the founding of America, and that banning them now is nothing short of performative. He added that tracing a gun back to its owner is not guaranteed to solve a crime.
“The truth is, it’s extremely rare to take a gun at a crime scene and track it to the killer,” he said. “That is rare, because the guns are usually stolen by gang bangers and stuff to kill each other, or the serial number has been obliterated from the gun.”
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“What it does is it just gives the government another chance to know who’s got guns and what guns they have, which is exactly what they shouldn’t be finding out,” he added.
Spanberger has made gun violence prevention a key priority, framing the measure as part of a broader effort to strengthen public safety while tightening up existing laws.