The Trump Justice Department has filed two federal lawsuits challenging new California and Virginia laws that restrict the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms, arguing they violate the Second Amendment. Virginia’s ban took effect Wednesday, while California
When Virginia’s new semiautomatic firearms law took effect on Wednesday, it also triggered an immediate legal fight. That same day, the Trump administration sued Virginia in federal court—arguing the restriction violates the Second Amendment.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced the lawsuit against Virginia in a Justice Department news release. “The Constitution is not a suggestion, and the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,” he said.
The lawsuit targets a Virginia statute signed earlier this year by Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger that bans the sale and manufacture of certain semiautomatic firearms. The law took effect Wednesday, and it is already facing at least four other lawsuits challenging its constitutionality.
Virginia officials are already preparing to defend the measure. The office of Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones said in a statement that the ban on selling certain semiautomatic firearms is a “commonsense” measure that “keeps Virginians safe. protects law enforcement. and safeguards communities across the Commonwealth.”.
Spanberger’s office added that the governor believes firearms “designed to inflict maximum casualties do not belong in our communities, near our kids and schools, or on Virginia’s streets.”
The administration’s legal push did not stop at Virginia. In a separate case filed the same Wednesday in federal court, the Justice Department sued California over a new state law that restricts the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms.
In that lawsuit, the department says the California law violates the Second Amendment.
California’s measure prohibits gun shops from selling certain handguns that can “easily be made fully automatic.” The Justice Department’s filing points to how a semi-automatic pistol fitted with a conversion device—one that can make it fully automatic—can be fired at the Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco. Firearms. and Explosives National Services Center.
California’s attorney general’s office rejected the suit, saying the state has “effective and constitutional gun safety laws” that “helped drive firearm death rates to record lows.”
At the center of the California challenge is a largely sweeping ban on the sale of Glock and Glock-style pistols, described in the DOJ lawsuit as among the most popular type of handgun in the U.S. The lawsuit also challenges additional restrictions on handguns sold in California.
The dueling lawsuits land as states continue to diverge over gun policy in ways that mirror today’s broader political map. Some Republican-led states have passed laws relaxing firearm restrictions in recent years, while states led by Democrats have moved in the opposite direction.
The timeline is tightening further. On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court said it will take up another major Second Amendment case. The justices will consider whether bans on semiautomatic rifles violate the Constitution, with arguments expected in the fall. With a conservative majority, the court has expanded gun rights in two cases this term.
Still, for Virginia and California, the question is immediate and local—whether these specific state restrictions can survive the federal challenge filed the very day Virginia’s law began.
In the weeks ahead. the administration’s cases will test whether the Second Amendment argument that Justice Department lawyers are making can overpower the states’ insistence that restrictions on certain semiautomatic firearms are a common-sense public-safety choice. The lawsuits are separate. but they travel the same path: federal court. constitutional claims. and a fight over how far gun rights extend when states say they are trying to prevent the kind of harm they say these weapons are built to deliver.
Trump administration Justice Department Todd Blanche Second Amendment lawsuit California gun law Virginia gun law Abigail Spanberger Jay Jones semiautomatic firearms Glock-style pistols Supreme Court Second Amendment case
So they’re suing over guns again… shocker.
This sounds like they’re just trying to undo everything CA and VA do. Like if it’s “semiautomatic” then how is it “fully automatic” at all? I’m lost.
Todd Blanche saying the Constitution isn’t a suggestion doesn’t mean the courts won’t side with Virginia. But didn’t California already have a bunch of bans like this? Also the article cut off mid-sentence so I’m not sure what guns they’re even talking about.
Commonsense for who though? “Designed to inflict maximum casualties” sounds like propaganda. And I bet this just drags on in court forever while nothing gets safer. Plus it says Virginia took effect Wednesday but Trump sued that same day, so does that mean the law is paused or still in effect? nobody seems to know.