The Virginia General Assembly recently sent a bill for Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s (D-VA) signature that would ban new sales of “assault firearms” and “high-capacity magazines,” two nonsense phrases concocted by the Left to scare non-gun owners. Virginia would become the 10th state to enact these bans.
Sooner or later, the Supreme Court is going to have to stop evading the question of state bans on semiautomatic rifles and magazine capacity. Because any justice that adheres to the District of Columbia v. Heller decision couldn’t possibly believe either passes constitutional muster.
Heller not only reaffirmed that the Second Amendment was an individual right but that weapons “in common use by law-abiding citizens” were legal. The AR-15 clearly meets this criterion. It’s the most popular rifle in America. It is not even close to being the deadliest weapon in the country. To say that the AR-15 is responsible for 3% of homicides is probably pushing it. More people are killed by punches and kicks than by AR-15s.
The Virginia law would also ban magazines that hold more than 15 rounds. But ammunition is inseparable from exercising your Second Amendment rights. Even newer compact pistols come with magazines that hold over 15 rounds. They are in common use, as well.
Setting aside the legality, the reasoning behind the push has always been preposterous.
In making his case, Saddam Salim, the bill’s author, points to the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech. Perhaps he doesn’t recall that the killer in that shooting, one of the deadliest in U.S. history, used a .22-caliber Walther and a 9 mm Glock, both of them handguns, not AR-15s. The Virginia Tech shooter emptied 17 magazines while walking around unfettered in a “gun-free zone,” none of them over the 15-round capacity.
Salim’s law would have done nothing to prevent Virginia Tech, or likely any other shootings.
The D.C. Court of Appeals recently ruled that banning magazines with more than 10 rounds violated the Second Amendment. The Justice Department is also suing the District of Columbia over its assault weapons ban.
But Salim contends he’s confident that Virginia can defend the law. “I think we have an AG who’s been great, who has said he’s going to continue to fight for this alongside me,” Salim said of Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, who once fantasized about putting “two bullets” in the head of former Virginia Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert. I guess you don’t need a “high-capacity magazine” for that sort of thing.
Salim went on to say that the “overall goal of this bill is to ensure that we have less weapons of war on the streets.” Not to be pedantic, but fewer AR-15s will not change the number of “weapons of war on the streets” because AR-15s aren’t used by any branch of our armed forces. They’re technically civilian semiautomatic versions of the M-16.
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The Founders, incidentally, wanted law-abiding Americans to have access to “weapons of war” that could be used against a tyrannical government. Muskets were “weapons of war.” Marines are issued SIG Sauer 9mm sidearms. They are “weapons of war.” A civilian can buy one right now.
Gun restrictionists only focus on the AR-15 now because they share the aesthetic qualities of a military weapon. But they feature the same mechanics as many other firearms. Essentially, the argument against AR-15s is that they work better and so they are more deadly. Well, yes, that’s the point of a gun. And there will always be one that performs better than the rest. And Democrats will continue to try to ban the next best guns. The focus on the AR-15 is just part of an incremental push toward broader prohibitions.
It’s also completely unconstitutional.