{"id":117994,"date":"2026-01-31T00:45:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117994\/"},"modified":"2026-01-31T00:45:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-31T00:45:12","slug":"virginia-democrats-look-to-join-new-york-california-with-10-round-magazine-limit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/117994\/","title":{"rendered":"Virginia Democrats look to join New York, California with 10-round magazine limit"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – A proposed law<\/a> in Virginia\u2019s General Assembly would ban <\/a>assault weapons and limit magazine capacity to 10 rounds, sparking praise from gun reform advocates and concern from gun sellers in the Commonwealth.<\/p>\n

The legislation, SB749, is still making its way through committees in the Senate, but would prohibit the purchase, transfer or manufacture of magazines holding more than 10 rounds starting July 1. The current version\u2019s exclusion of a \u2018grandfather clause\u2019 would mean owning \u2018large capacity magazines,\u2019 no matter the purchase date, a misdemeanor offense. <\/p>\n

The measure would align Virginia gun laws with restrictions in New York and California.<\/p>\n

Tobey Bouch, owner of Tobey\u2019s Pawn Shop<\/a> in Albemarle, said 60% of his shop\u2019s revenue comes from firearms. The 10-round limit would impact 75% of the handguns and all of the AR-style rifles he sells. <\/p>\n

\u201cThree Founding Fathers that live within 20 miles of here would have a lot to say about those who would give up freedom for security,\u201d Bouch said. \u201cNow I\u2019m going to have to order California, New York compliant. Now it\u2019s going to be California, New York, and Virginia compliant handguns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bouch believes the proposed changes violate the Constitution and anticipates, if passed, the courts will quickly take it up. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs American citizens, we don\u2019t have to comply with unconstitutional law,\u201d Bouch said. \u201cWe don\u2019t. We should challenge it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bouch said he has heard from many customers worried about the law passing. While he wishes it would not, he expected this after 2025\u2019s Democratic sweep. <\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, people are reactive. If we\u2019d have been proactive, November 5th might have been different,\u201d Bouch said. \u201cThe truth is, if you didn\u2019t vote, if you didn\u2019t vote on November 5th, I really don\u2019t want to talk to you about it. I\u2019m just being blunt, because elections have consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic Senator Creigh Deeds, who voted to pass the bill in committee, believes the Second Amendment establishes a personal right to possess firearms but does not guarantee the right to possess weapons of war.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can fire out a lot of bullets really quickly, you can hurt more people than you can if you can shoot one at a time or two or three in rapid succession,\u201d Deeds said.<\/p>\n

Deeds previously opposed gun reform measures but said tragedies over the years changed his position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve come to see this differently as I\u2019ve gotten older and I\u2019ve had more experience,\u201d Deeds said. \u201cThis country is founded on liberty, but the freedom to live the best life you can, that\u2019s for everybody. We can\u2019t protect the liberty of a few so that the many are in danger of being harmed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican state Representative Luther Cifers opposes the legislation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an attempt to take law-abiding Virginians and turn them into criminals instead of saving them money, which is exactly what the Democrats promised to do, is to make Virginia more affordable,\u201d Cifers said.<\/p>\n

The bill will return to the Senate floor next week. Cifers said he has many questions about the current language of the bill. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s flawed in every sense of the word,\u201d Cifers said. \u201cHow this plans to be enforced, I have no idea. I know that we\u2019ve got constitutionally minded sheriffs that probably won\u2019t enforce it, and I certainly hope that\u2019s the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pawn shop owner Bouch worries about the consolidation of weapons to the government should the bill pass, citing a clause in the current version that excludes law enforcement from the ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the fact that it\u2019s some arbitrary restriction that bothers me, as much as it\u2019s some arbitrary restriction that doesn\u2019t apply to them, right?\u201d Bouch said.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Deeds said the clause is merely a logistics addition. <\/p>\n

\u201cSome of these weapons are in use by certain law enforcement agencies, and so that has to be excluded,\u201d Deeds said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that a law enforcement officer in his private life gets to possess something that somebody else doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Until the fate of the bill is known, Bouch said many customers are purchasing larger magazines in anticipation of the ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, all of a sudden, people are buying it like gold,\u201d Bouch said. <\/p>\n

Do you have a story idea? Send us your news tip here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WVIR. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – A proposed law in Virginia\u2019s General Assembly would ban assault weapons and limit magazine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":117995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4022,17361,17365,17364,17363,9,11,10,4618,17366,17362],"class_list":{"0":"post-117994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breaking-news-video","10":"tag-live-speeches","11":"tag-live-updates","12":"tag-live-video","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-headlines","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-press-conference","17":"tag-real-time-coverage","18":"tag-video-updates"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}