Spanberger Just Signed Two Unconstitutional Gun Bills—Today

April 23rd, 2026 will go down as a dark day for the Second Amendment in the Commonwealth. Spanberger put pen to paper on HB1525 and SB727/HB1524, converting two of the most aggressively anti-gun bills in Virginia's recent history into enforceable law — over the objections of gun owners, legal scholars, and the NRA-ILA.

HB1525 and the paired SB727/HB1524 didn't sneak through on a technicality — Democrats rammed them through a legislature they control and handed Spanberger the perfect weapon to use against law-abiding Virginians. The NRA-ILA is calling both bills flatly unconstitutional, and given the current post-Bruen legal landscape, that's not just rhetoric — that's a roadmap to federal court.

This is exactly the playbook Newsom ran in California, Hochul ran in New York, and Pritzker ran in Illinois — sign first, litigate later, and make gun owners suffer in the meantime. Spanberger just joined that club. While Kash Patel's FBI and Acting AG Todd Blanche's DOJ are working to restore Second Amendment rights at the federal level, blue-state governors are sprinting in the opposite direction, betting they can bury your rights in legal delays and compliance costs.

The NRA-ILA has signaled a legal fight is coming, and Bruen-era precedent gives challengers real ammunition. But lawsuits take time — and while the courts sort it out, Virginia gun owners could face enforcement, fees, and criminal exposure for exercising a constitutional right. That's the point. That's always been the point.