Virginia just passed nine gun-control bills in a single legislative session, and Governor Abigail Spanberger has until April 13 to sign them — or simply do nothing and let them become law under Virginia’s rules. Nine bills targeting law-abiding gun owners sailed through. The one bill that would have imposed mandatory minimums on repeat violent gun criminals — SB79 — was killed in committee. Same session, same committee, same chair. If you needed a cleaner illustration that modern gun control has nothing to do with public safety, I don’t know what would satisfy you.
But here is where this story gets interesting: Harmeet Dhillon, the Assistant Attorney General heading the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, publicly flagged a post on X by Virginia Republican businessman and Army veteran Shane Snavely that laid out all nine bills. That flag, from her official DOJ account, tells me everything I need to know about what happens next.
Nine Bills Against Gun Owners, Zero Bills Against Criminals
The bills Snavely catalogued cover almost every anti-gun priority the left has pushed for years. SB749 is a full assault weapons ban. SB27 expands gun industry liability. SB38 governs prohibited-person firearm transfers. HB40 makes ghost gun possession a felony. HB19 closes the so-called dating violence loophole. HB110 creates a $500 fine for a visible handgun in an unattended vehicle. SB115 guts Virginia’s concealed carry reciprocity with other states. HB229 bans firearms from mental health facilities. HB871 mandates home storage.
All nine enrolled. Awaiting the governor.
Meanwhile, SB79 — mandatory minimum sentences for repeat violent gun criminals — died in committee without a vote. Let that sink in. The legislature that just sprinted through nine restrictions on ordinary gun owners couldn’t find time to add teeth to the law for the people actually committing crimes with firearms. That is not a safety agenda. That is, as Snavely put it, just an agenda.
Dhillon’s Flag Is Not Casual
Dhillon heads the Civil Rights Division and personally created the Second Amendment Section within it. She has already sued jurisdictions over abusive licensing practices. She personally argued before the Seventh Circuit in Barnett v. Raoul — the consolidated challenge to Illinois’s assault weapons and magazine bans — the first time DOJ has ever argued against such a ban at the appellate level. She filed an amicus brief in Cheeseman v. Platkin, the Third Circuit en banc case challenging New Jersey’s AR-15 and magazine bans. She has filed suits against Los Angeles, Washington D.C., the Virgin Islands, and others.
When someone with that track record publicly flags nine Virginia gun bills from her official DOJ account, that is not casual. My read: as soon as these laws take effect, Virginia gets sued by the Trump-Bondi-Dhillon Department of Justice.
The Fourth Circuit Problem — And Why SCOTUS Is the Real Target
Virginia sits inside the Fourth Circuit, which has been one of the worst courts in the country on Second Amendment rights. Senior Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III has steered that court toward deep skepticism of gun rights, and the circuit’s precedent gives me no confidence we get relief there. We will fight there, but the Fourth Circuit is not the finish line.
The real prize is the U.S. Supreme Court, and the vehicle is most likely Barnett or Cheeseman. In Barnett, Judge Stephen McGlynn of the Southern District of Illinois issued a 100-plus-page permanent injunction in November 2024 finding Illinois’s assault weapons ban unconstitutional. The Seventh Circuit stayed that ruling and heard argument in September 2025 before a panel including Judge Frank Easterbrook, who had previously joined the majority in Bevis v. City of Naperville upholding those same bans. Dhillon stood up and told the panel their Bevis reasoning is wrong, it does not follow Heller, and if they get it wrong again, DOJ is going to the Supreme Court.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh has already signaled where this ends. In June 2025, when the Court denied cert in Snope v. Brown, No. 24-203 — the Maryland AR-15 ban challenge — Kavanaugh wrote separately to say that “this Court should and presumably will address the AR-15 issue soon, in the next Term or two.” That window includes the current Term and the one opening October 2026. I put our odds of winning those cases at near zero percent — of losing them, I mean.
Mississippi Burning Comes to Virginia
I keep coming back to the Mississippi Burning metaphor, and I want to explain exactly what I mean by it. That 1988 film, starring Gene Hackman, depicted the federal government going into Mississippi to vindicate the fundamental rights of African Americans that were being stripped away by state actors during the civil rights era. The legal authority DOJ used then still exists today. Congress built that power specifically to ensure the federal government can intervene when state governments systematically violate fundamental individual rights.
What is happening in Virginia right now fits that exact mold. A state legislature is systematically dismantling the Second Amendment rights of ordinary, law-abiding Virginians, and the same session that did so refused to punish the people actually committing violence. That is oppression wrapped in the language of safety. And the DOJ, under this administration, has every legal tool available to go in there and vindicate those rights — through lawsuits, amicus briefs, statements of interest, and litigation support.
The cavalry may be riding. The history of the future is yet to be written. But Harmeet Dhillon watching Virginia is the first, unmistakable sign that someone in Washington is paying attention — and that they are prepared to do something about it.
This article is based on analysis by Professor Mark W. Smith, constitutional attorney and Host of the Four Boxes Diner 2nd Amendment channel. Watch the original video here. This does not constitute legal advice.