NSSF Opens Second Federal Front Against Virginia's Gun Bans

The National Shooting Sports Foundation has launched a separate federal lawsuit targeting two of Governor Spanberger's new gun laws: the assault weapon ban and a firearm industry liability statute specifically engineered to strip manufacturers of their federal PLCAA protections.

This is not the same docket as the constitutional challenges already filed by NRA, SAF, and FPC. **This is a second front.** And that distinction is the whole ballgame.

Where other plaintiffs attack the assault weapon ban head-on, NSSF's suit zeros in on the liability law — the quieter, deadlier half of Richmond's strategy. The goal of that law isn't to win in court. It's to make defending yourself in court so expensive that manufacturers fold, settle, or die.

Virginia's industry liability statute is a carbon copy of the Bloomberg-funded legal playbook already deployed in New York and New Jersey: neutralize the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act at the state level, flood manufacturers with civil suits, and bleed the industry into submission one legal bill at a time. NSSF is calling it exactly what it is — unconstitutional.

**Congress passed the PLCAA in 2005 with bipartisan support for one simple reason: suing a gun maker for crimes committed by a third party is legally absurd.** Virginia Democrats are now attempting to end-run a federal statute with a state law. NSSF's lawsuit drops that maneuver directly in front of a federal judge.

Meanwhile, the assault weapon ban is facing full-scale rebellion before a single case concludes. Eight Virginia prosecutors have publicly refused to enforce it. Multiple sheriffs have drawn a hard line. And now Virginia Democrats are threatening those sheriffs with consequences — which tells you everything about how confident they actually are this law survives scrutiny.

Multiple simultaneous lawsuits hammering the same unconstitutional laws from different angles is how you win. The more dockets Richmond must defend, the more their resources stretch — and the greater the chance one court issues a preliminary injunction that stops enforcement cold before a single gun owner is prosecuted.

Virginia gun owners deserve to know exactly who is spending real money in their corner. NSSF just put significant resources on the table to protect not only the right to own a rifle, but the industry's right to manufacture and sell one without being buried under an avalanche of junk litigation.

**Bottom line:** The fight in Virginia isn't one lawsuit — it's a legal siege. NSSF, NRA, SAF, and FPC are each holding a different section of the wall. Support all of them. Share this with every Virginia gun owner in your circle. And if your sheriff has refused to enforce Spanberger's bans, make sure they know their community is standing right behind them.

Watch this docket closely. A preliminary injunction motion could stop Virginia's assault weapon ban in its tracks — and the industry liability ruling could set precedent that kills the Bloomberg playbook in every state that copies it.