Tag: virginia

In the Nick of Time: NRA Secures Injunction Against Virginia ‘Assault Weapons’ and Magazine Ban

On Monday, the NRA secured a preliminary injunction against enforcement of Virginia’s “assault weapons” and 15-plus rounds magazine ban.

The case, Santolla v. Katz, was heard by Judge Jeffrey Campbell, a former Republican member of Virginia’s House of Delegates.

The NRA announced the filing of the lawsuit on May 14, 2026, noting that plaintiffs included the Virginia Shooting Sports Association (VSSA), Middletown Firearms, Middletown Training, Virginia Pride Ltd., and VSSA members Joseph Santolla, and Reagan Adams.

Virginia Scope reporter Brandon Jarvis published Campbell’s ruling, wherein he wrote, “…the Motion for Preliminary Injunction enjoining the Defendants from enforcing the subject Firearms Ban and Magazine Bans as contemplated by the recently enacted Senate Bill 749 and House Bill 217 is GRANTED.”

Judge Campbell noted, “This injunction shall remain in effect until further Order of this Court or no later than July 1, 2027, consistent with the Governor’s recently passed budget amendment, and this matter is continued on the docket of this Court for any additional proceedings as the parties may so advise.”

The “assault weapons” and 15-plus rounds magazine ban was set to take effect July 1, 2026.

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12 Sheriffs, 17 Prosecutors Who Will Not Enforce Virginia AR-15 Ban

The number of sheriffs and commonwealth attorneys who are taking a stand against the Democrats’ AR-15 has grown so that now 12 sheriffs and 17 prosecutors have made clear they will not enforce it.

On May 25, 2026, Breitbart News reported that Spotsylvania commonwealth attorney Ryan Mehaffey had made clear he would not enforce the ban. Days later, Breitbart News pointed to a WAVY 10 article which observed that the number of prosecutors refusing to enforce the ban was continuing to grow.

On May 30, 2026, Breitbart News noted that Clarke County Sheriff Travis Sumption making clear his office would not enforce the state’s “assault weapons” ban nor the “expanded public-carry restrictions.”

Now, Virginia Citizens Defense League president Philip Van Cleave has released a list showing the number of prosecutors refusing to enforce the ban has reached 17 and the number of sheriffs is at 12.

Here are the prosecutors who are taking a stand for Virginians’ gun rights:

  • W. Lyle Carver, Amherst County
  • Leslie M. Fleet, Appomattox County
  • Paul A. McAndrews, Campbell County
  • Daniel J. Farnsworth Jr., Charlotte County
  • Matthew E. Bass, Clarke County
  • W. Eric Branscom, Floyd County
  • John L. Lumpkins Jr., Goochland County
  • Bethany Harrison, Lynchburg
  • Chapman L. Good, Sr., Page County
  • Dayna K. Bobbitt, Patrick County
  • Rob Cerullo, Powhatan County
  • Justin L. Griffith, Pulaski County
  • Kyle Kilgore, Scott County
  • Elizabeth H. Cooper, Shenandoah County
  • Phillip Blevins, Smyth County
  • Ryan Mehaffey, Spotsylvania County
  • John S. Bell, Warren County

Here are the 12 sheriffs: Appomattox County Sheriff, Robert N. Richardson, Clarke County Sheriff, Travis M. Sumption, Floyd County Sheriff, Brian Craig, Hanover County Sheriff, Gregory W. Six, Henry County, Sheriff Wayne Davis, Louisa County Sheriff, Donald Lowe, Patrick County, Sheriff Daniel M. Smith, Powhatan County Sheriff, Brad W. Nunnally Jr., Scott County Sheriff, Jeff B. Edds, Shenandoah County Sheriff, Timothy C. Carter, Spotsylvania County Sheriff, Roger L. Harris, and Warren County Sheriff, Crystal M. Cline.

The ban on AR-15s and similar rifles, along with magazines holding more than 15 rounds, is set to take effect July 1, 2026.

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“It’s That Bad”: Virginia Residents Battling Constant Noise From Data Center Generators

For more than a year, residents living next to the Vantage Data Centers facility have endured what they describe as a constant, high-pitched whining or ringing sound coming from the site’s massive backup generators – the facility’s only source of electricity.

Unlike most data centers connected to the power grid, this facility runs entirely on its own on-site power plant. What residents were told would be temporary generator testing has become permanent operation.

“They’re Just Never Turned Off”

Neighbor Hari Doue told News Nation that the community was initially assured the generators were only being tested for emergencies.

“We were told in the beginning that they test the generators to make sure they’re working in case of an emergency. And then as the year and the months have gone on, they’re just never turned off,” Doue said. 

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Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger Picks LGBT Activist Who Fought Girls’ Bathroom Protections for State Board Role

Virginia’s Democrat Governor Abigail Spanberger has chosen and LGBT activist who has fought against protections for girls’ bathrooms to sit on a state board that directly influences related policies.

During the election, Spanberger regularly dodged questions on this issue when asked by reporters. No we know why.

Her decision to appoint this person to this role just shows that Democrats have not changed at all. They are not budging on this issue and will go right back to where they were before the 2024 election the instant they retake power.

FOX News reports:

Spanberger taps LGBTQ activist who fought girls’ bathroom protections for state board

Virginia Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger appointed an LGBTQ activist who pushed back against efforts to bar biological males from girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms to a state advisory board that helps shape recommendations on LGBTQ-related policies.

Spanberger’s appointment of Kellen MacBeth on May 22, who previously led the LGBTQ nonprofit Equality Arlington, follows a gubernatorial campaign during which she ran as a moderate and sidestepped questions about transgender participation in women’s sports and access to female-only spaces.

MacBeth, the founder of Equality Arlington, has become one of Northern Virginia’s most visible LGBTQ advocates. Under his leadership, Equality Arlington has urged Virginia school districts to implement policies allowing transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their “gender identity” and has encouraged local governments to resist efforts to reverse those protections. The organization also advocated for preserving transgender-inclusive policies in Arlington Public Schools despite federal pressure to change them.

MacBeth has also opposed Virginia legislation that would require schools to notify parents when a student identifies as transgender or permit parents to exempt their children from classroom instruction involving LGBTQ-related topics.

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These Are The Six States Celebrating America 250 By Raising Your Gas Tax

The final countdown for America’s 250th birthday is on. Families will be planning road trips, parades, vacations, reunions, and cookouts to celebrate the greatest nation in history. But in six states, politicians have a different idea for the party: raise taxes.

Beginning July 1, drivers in California, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Mississippi are scheduled to see higher state gas taxes. In other words, as the country prepares to celebrate casting aside a tax-heavy king in favor of freedom, these states will use the occasion to fatten government coffers one gallon at a time.

The worst offenders will be no surprise. California, Washington and Illinois  — we’ll call them the Axis of Glut.

Their governors are often the first to fake outrage when gas prices rise. They blame oil companies. They blame “price gouging.” They blame world events. They blame everyone except the politicians who keep piling taxes, mandates, and regulations onto every gallon drivers buy.

Yet these same states already have some of the worst gas prices in the nation, some of the highest gas taxes in America, and now they are getting ready to raise those taxes again.

California’s gas tax is already the highest in the country and is scheduled to climb again on July 1, from 61.2 cents to 63.4 cents per gallon, under the state’s annual inflation adjustment. The same report noted California’s average price for regular gasoline was nearly $6 per gallon in early June.

Illinois is no better. The state says its motor fuel tax will rise on July 1 because the law requires an annual inflation adjustment. Washington joined the club with a gas tax increase last year and then baked in automatic increases going forward. Starting July 1, 2026, the state’s fuel tax rises by 2% every year unless lawmakers change the law.

This is the dirty hustle behind inflation-indexed taxes. Politicians get to raise taxes without holding a press conference to admitting it. They pass the law once, then every year drivers get mugged by a formula.

As of June 8, the national average for regular gas was $4.164, down 38.2 cents in a single month. That is welcome relief for families, workers, small businesses and anyone trying to get through summer. But the national average would look even better if it were not being anchored down by tax-heavy states that treat drivers like a rolling ATM.

The problem is not limited to the six July 1 tax-hike states. Seven of the ten most expensive states for gas are run by Democratic governors. That is not a coincidence.

Taxes play a major role in the high-price reputation of many of these states. So do their regulatory regimes, special fuel rules, anti-energy policies and climate mandates that make fuel harder to produce, refine, transport and sell.

The result is predictable.

Families, small businesses, truckers, and farmers all pay more. Then the same politicians who helped drive up the cost pretend they are shocked by the bill.

That is not compassion. That is government gluttony.

Supporters claim the money goes to roads and infrastructure. But that excuse only goes so far. Every tax increase is sold as necessary. Yet somehow the burden always lands in the same place: on the people who drive to work, school, church, the grocery store or a summer vacation.

That is what makes the timing so perfect, and so insulting.

America’s 250th birthday should be a celebration of freedom, independence and the rejection of government overreach. The American Revolution was born from the idea that people should not be treated as endless revenue sources for rulers who never seem to have enough.

Nearly 250 years later, millions of drivers will pull into gas stations in California, Washington, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Mississippi and get a reminder that some politicians still have not learned the lesson.

The country is moving toward a better energy future: lower prices, more production, more reliability and less punishment for the people who keep America moving. But these six states are choosing a different path.

America 250 should remind us why this country was born: because free people eventually get tired of being treated like revenue.

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Citizen Sues Virginia Military Institute And Its Board, Alleging Secret “Group Text” Meetings, Withheld And Altered Public Records

A new lawsuit accuses the governing board of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) — one of the nation’s last state military colleges and a primary commissioning source for the armed forces — of conducting the public’s business in the shadows.

The verified petition, filed June 1, 2026 in York County Circuit Court (Morris v. Virginia Military Institute, No. CL26005973-00), alleges that some members of VMI’s Board of Visitors held unnoticed “meetings” by reply-all email and other means about official board business — including the day after their own FOIA officer warned them in writing that doing so was illegal, and despite repeated formal training telling them not to “Reply All.”

It further alleges that VMI withheld, redacted, and even altered public records to obscure how a prominent donor and board member was pushed off the board and the board president was forced to step down.

The specifics are striking. According to the petition, board member Donald Hall publicly admitted he was “the principal negotiator” working with the Virginia General Assembly and said former Governor Ralph Northam “was more involved than anyone in this room knows other than me.”

Yet the suit alleges VMI produced no records at all from Hall, none from the former governor, withheld voicemails and call logs, and redacted the identities of email correspondents.

The petition also alleges that VMI’s FOIA officer altered an online records-portal entry to erase his own name —replacing it with the anonymous label “Staff” — and that a process server hired to deliver public comments on important issues intended for the Board to be informed on was turned away from public open committee meetings.

The filing seeks a ruling that the secret meetings and other actions were unlawful, an order forcing board business onto official accounts and devices, and personal civil penalties of $500–$5,000 per violation against the FOIA officer, a board administrator, and six sitting board members — penalties payable to Virginia’s State Literary Fund, not to the petitioner.

The case carries a question of national resonance: how much should politicians control the governance — and the independence — of public universities, and how much of that maneuvering happens off the public record?

What are the implications of these actions on commissioning sources and military readiness?

It also invites an uncomfortable comparison. In the same period, Gov. Abigail Spanberger removed John Rocovich as rector of Virginia Tech’s Board of Visitors — a move he has publicly contested — while the VMI BOV and FOIA staff accused of operating in secret remain in place and operating.

Were the standards applied consistently, and who is really steering Virginia’s military college?

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Virginia Judge Delivers Win for Gun Owners, Smacks Down AG and Governor on Background Checks

Lynchburgh, Virginia Circuit Court Judge F. Patrick Yeatts has sided with Gun Owners of America and Virginia Citizens Defense League and rejected the attempt by Gov. Abigail Spanberger and Attorney General Jay Jones to resume requiring background checks on the private transfers of firearms. 

In a ruling delivered from the bench after a hearing on Thursday, Yeatts declared that his previously-issued injunction on Virginia’s universal background check scheme is still intact, despite Democrats’ efforts to do an end-run around the injunction. 

As we discussed ahead of today’s hearing, Yeatts has been dealing with this issue for several years now, and has previously ruled that adults under the age of 21 have the right to possess a handgun. Under newly passed HB 1525, though, that right has been stripped from them in an attempt to impose a NICS check on all private transfers. Any NICS check on a handgun purchase is going to be flagged by the system given the federal prohibition on commercial handgun sales to under-21s, and the state of Virginia had previously tried to get around that by running checks on private sales of handguns to young adults through a system administered by the Virginia State Police. 

Yeatts previously held that to be a violation of equal protection laws, so Democrats responded by making it a crime for an adult younger than 21 to purchase a handgun under any circumstances. GOA and VCDL argued that by doing so, the state is still running afoul of the judge’s previous rulings, and the judge appears to agree with that argument, as well as the plaintiffs’ contention that the “emergency” clause in the legislation that allowed HB 1525 to take effect immediately instead of on July 1 is null and void because it did not receive the 4/5ths approval by lawmakers as required under Virginia’s constitution. 

Yeatts did deny GOA and VCDL’s request to hold the head of the Virginia State Police in contempt for resuming background checks on private transfers while the injunction was still in place, but according to VCDL President Philip Van Cleave, the judge warned the Attorney General’s office that further attempts to enforce background checks on private transfers would lead to a finding of contempt. 

Attorney General Jay Jones has been quiet on today’s defeat, at least so far, but expect him to appeal the judge’s decision in short order. Once this case reaches the appellate court, I have no idea what will happen, but there are a number of issues at play, including whether or not Virginians under the age of 21 can be prohibited from purchasing firearms given their status as full, legal adults under the state constitution. The legal fight is far from over, but VCDL and GOA won a major battle in court today, while Spanberger and Jones are the big losers. 

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ICE Pleads with Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger Not to Release Illegal Alien Accused of Raping Girl

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is urging Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) to make sure an illegal alien, accused of raping a teen girl, stays locked up in jail rather than being released back into the community.

Cristian Romario Saenz-Argueta, a 31-year-old illegal alien from El Salvador, was arrested in Prince William County, Virginia, on May 26 and charged with one count of rape by force, threat, or intimidation, and two counts of carnal knowledge of a child between the ages of 13 and 14.

According to police, Saenz-Argueta used social media to contact a girl who was under 15 years old, portraying himself as 18 years old. Police allege that in November of last year, Saenz-Argueta met up with the young girl in a parking lot and sexually assaulted her.

“This sick illegal alien from El Salvador now faces three felony charges for raping a girl under the age of 15,” the Department of Homeland Security’s Lauren Bis said:

DHS is asking sanctuary politicians in Prince William County, Virginia to not release this pedophile from jail and cooperate with ICE law enforcement. Due to the reckless policies of Governor Abigail Spanberger and her fellow sanctuary politicians, Virginia has become a magnet for criminal illegal aliens who know that they’ll be protected in this state. How many more innocent victims have to be hurt by illegal aliens before Governor Spanberger cooperates with ICE law enforcement? [Emphasis added]

Saenz-Argueta illegally crossed the United States-Mexico border as an unknown got-away before returning to his native El Salvador in 2022. At a later date, unknown to officials, Saenz-Argueta illegally crossed the border again.

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Virginia: At Least 10 Commonwealth Attorneys Refuse to Enforce ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban

At least ten Commonwealth’s Attorneys have made clear that they will not enforce the “assault weapons” ban scheduled to take effect in Virginia on July 1, 2026.

On May 27, 2026, Breitbart News pointed to a WAVY 10 report showing that three Commonwealth’s Attorneys had made clear they would not be enforcing the ban.

Over the weekend, Virginia state Sen. Saddam Azlan Salim (D), the “assault weapons” ban sponsor, told the prosecutors to quit “tough guy posturing.”

Salim used an X post to address prosecutors who are standing against his ban, saying, “I know these Republican prosecutors see this as an opportunity for tough guy posturing and amateur constitutional lawyering, but ending the sale of assault weapons in Virginia isn’t something an individual prosecutor can do anything about.”

But the number of Commonwealth’s Attorneys who are adamant about not enforcing the ban continued to grow until, on June 1, 2026, WJLA noted the number of Commonwealth’s Attorneys refusing to enforce it had reached ten.

One of those prosecutors is Clarke County Commonwealth Attorney Matthew E. Bass. Moreover, Breitbart News explained that Clarke County Sheriff Travis Sumption also made clear his office will not be enforcing the ban either.

In a joint statement, both Bass and Sumption made clear there will be no enforcement of the new controls against “non-violent offenders.”

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DOT Subpoenas New York After Deadly Virginia Bus Crash — State Accused of Stonewalling Federal Investigation Into Chinese-Born CDL Holder

The Biden-era policies that opened the floodgates to lax oversight and questionable licensing practices are once again under scrutiny after the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued a subpoena to the State of New York over its refusal to cooperate with a federal investigation into a deadly bus crash that killed five people in Virginia.

According to a report from Fox News, the DOT confirmed it has formally subpoenaed New York officials after the state allegedly failed to provide records related to Jing Shen Dong, the bus driver accused of causing the horrific crash in Stafford County, Virginia, on Friday morning.

The crash left five people dead and multiple others injured, raising serious questions about how Dong obtained and maintained his commercial driver’s license (CDL).

“The Acura caught fire, police said. Four of the five people killed were in the Acura: a 45-year-old man, a 44-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy, all from Greenfield, Massachusetts, police said,” ABC News reported.

“The fifth victim killed, a 25-year-old woman, was in the Suburban, police said,” the outlet reported.

“Forty-four people were taken to hospitals, including three with critical injuries, police said,” ABC reported.

Federal officials say Dong is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in China, does not speak English, and received his CDL through the State of New York in 2024.

Now, transportation officials want answers.

According to DOT, investigators attempted to obtain critical documents through normal channels but were repeatedly met with resistance from New York authorities.

“The subpoena is a result of not being able to obtain the requested documents through other reasonable means,” a DOT spokesperson told Fox News.

The federal agency is demanding that New York turn over all records related to Dong’s CDL, his entry-level driver training, and the driving school he attended.

Those records must be produced by Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Failure to comply could result in penalties and additional legal consequences.

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