Overview
- On a party-line vote, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee advanced SB 749 and rereferred it to the Finance and Appropriations panel, with Gov. Abigail Spanberger saying she is ready to sign gun-safety bills.
- The substitute bill would prohibit future manufacture, sale, purchase, transfer and import of defined assault-style firearms, while allowing current owners to keep them with limited transfers to immediate family or through inheritance.
- An amendment sets a 10-round magazine cap without a grandfather provision, with certain prohibited conduct under the bill treated as a Class 1 misdemeanor.
- Democrats frame the plan as a public-safety measure, while Republicans, the NRA’s lobbying arm and former Attorney General Jason Miyares call it unconstitutional and signal court challenges.
- The committee also moved related measures, including a ghost-gun ban, safe-storage requirements, a review of concealed-carry reciprocity and bans on firearms at universities and hospitals.