Virginia Prosecutor, Marine Veteran Says He Will Not Enforce State’s ‘Unconstitutional’ AR-15 Ban

Virginia prosecutor and U.S. Marine veteran Ryan Mehaffey is making clear he will not enforce the “assault weapons” ban Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) signed into law.

FOX News reported that Mehaffey is the “commonwealth attorney for Spotsylvania County.” He sent a letter to his county sheriff to tell him his position that the ban is “unconstitutional and cannot be lawfully enforced.”

Mehaffey noted, “Our founders were careful to make sure when they drafted our founding document, that the ultimate right of the people was preserved to defend themselves and to defend their community. … So, the linchpin of the constitutional analysis is going to be does this instrument have some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a regulated militia.”

Breitbart News noted that Spanberger signed the ban on wildly popular semiautomatic rifles and certain shotguns in mid-May.

Ammoland News noted the ban specifies that “importing, selling, purchasing, or transferring a prohibited firearm would be a Class 1 misdemeanor.” It also “restricts the sale or transfer of certain large-capacity magazines defined in the statute.”

The new law also bans a number of semiautomatic shotguns and certain semiautomatic, centerfire pistols, according to WRIC.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.