Virginia Dems Advance One Second Amendment-Specific Tax With Another On Deck

Ordinarily in blue state legislatures, we’ll see a ton of gun control legislation introduced, but only a handful of bills actually get traction in any given session. In Hawaii, for example, we’ve already seen two bonkers gun bills sent into legislative limbo, and hopefully that will be the case with several others as well. 

In Virginia, though, Democrats are advancing almost every gun control bill that’s been introduced; including bans on so-called assault firearms and “large capacity” magazines, expansion of the state’s “red flag” law, a permit-to-purchase scheme, and a new 11% tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition. 

The Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee voted, 10-5, along party lines on Tuesday to advance Senate Bill 763, proposed by Sen. Angelia Williams Graves, D-Norfolk.

Williams Graves originally introduced the bill as a way to “align revenue and public safety” through a dedicated source of funding for the prevention of gun violence. However, the committee adopted substitute legislation that would send new revenue — estimated between $60 million and $70 million a year — to the state general fund for broader use on initiatives “for gun violence prevention and community safety.”

The committee substitute would delay enactment until July 1, 2027.

Williams Graves told a Senate subcommittee last week that the new tax would be “imposed upstream at the manufacturer’s level and not at the point of sale.” It would exempt local, state and federal law enforcement from paying the tax.

That makes no sense. If the tax is imposed “upstream” of the point of sale, then why would local, state, and federal law enforcement need to be exempt from paying the tax? 

The excise tax might be paid by manufacturers, but they will pass those costs on to distributors, who in turn will pass the cost on to retailers, who will then pass the cost on to consumers. 

This bill isn’t the only attempt to increase the cost of exercising your Second Amendment rights. The permit-to-purchase legislation would allow the Virginia State Police to charge applicants whatever it determines is the actual cost of processing an application, and next week the House Finance committee is slated to hear HB 207, which would create a brand new $500 tax on the sale of all suppressors in the state. 

Meanwhile, the Virginia House could vote at any time on its version of an “assault firearm” and “large capacity” magazine ban. Unlike the Senate version passed by the Courts of Justice Committee, HB 217 does grandfather current owners of the prohibited guns and magazines, but that doesn’t make it any less of an infringement on our fundamental right to keep and bear arms. 

The Senate gun and magazine ban bill was further amended on Wednesday by the Senate Finance and Appropriations committee, but the amended bill isn’t available for the public to read on the legislature’s website. It might now include a grandfather provision for magazine owners to bring it line with the House bill, but I can’t guarantee that’s the case. 

You can keep up with the latest status of all of the gun control bills in Virginia through the Virginia Citizens Defense League’s bil tracker. As far as I can there are only three or four bills that haven’t started moving, but that includes the suppressor tax that will get a hearing next week, so the others may soon be heard in committee as well. 

When I was talking with WA Gun Law’s William Kirk on his livestream Tuesday night, he said he’d never seen anything like this tsunami of gun control legislation. I’ve been covering 2A issues since 2004, and I can’t recall anything like this as well. Again, normally we’d expect a handful of gun control measures to get the support of Democrat leadership while others are quietly shunted aside for future sessions (or just killed outright). 

That is not the case in Virginia this year. Democrats are trying to turn the Commonwealth into East California or South New Jersey in a matter of months, and their appetite for the destruction of the right to keep and bear arms appears insatiable. So far, I’m aware of just one bill that’s been scuttled for this session; HB 926, which would allow localities to “adopt an ordinance prohibiting outdoor shooting of a firearm unless the discharge of such firearm is conducted on land of at least five acres.”

The House Counties, Cities and Towns committee voted last week to punt the bill to the 2027 session, so this is one bill we don’t have to worry about… at least for the next twelve months. At this point, though, it looks like every other gun control bill could potentially be signed into law this year, and Virginia’s relatively strong gun laws could be wiped out and replaced with a draconian regime that treats a fundamental right as a societal wrong that must be eradicated. 

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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