The Commonwealth's Attorney for Spotsylvania County, Virginia, told the local sheriff Friday he will not enforce two sweeping firearms restrictions that Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed into law just hours earlier, declaring both measures flatly unconstitutional under binding Supreme Court precedent.
G. Ryan Mehaffey laid out his position in a letter to Spotsylvania County Sheriff Roger L. Harris, citing three landmark Second Amendment rulings and concluding that the new laws cannot be "lawfully enforced." The letter landed less than a day after Spanberger put her signature on the bills Thursday evening, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported.
The two laws at issue are the Assault Weapons Ban (SB 749/HB 217) and the Public Carry Ban (SB 727/HB 1524). Together they restrict ownership of certain semiautomatic firearms and limit the public carrying of weapons, measures Mehaffey says collide head-on with the Supreme Court's holdings in District of Columbia v. Heller, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, and Miller v. United States.
Mehaffey's letter did not mince words. In it, he told Sheriff Harris:
"The Assault Weapons Ban (SB 749/HB 217) and the Public Carry Ban (SB 727/HB 1524) are undoubtedly inconsistent with the historical tradition of Virginia, as articulated by Miller [v. United States], and are thus unconstitutional under Bruen."
He went further on the specific firearm most commonly targeted by so-called assault weapons bans:
"Moreover, Heller secures the right of Virginians to keep and bear the most popular rifle in America, the AR-15."
The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimated in a January release that more than 32 million "modern sporting rifles," a category that includes the AR-15, are in circulation across the country. Banning a class of firearm that widely held raises obvious enforcement questions, and, as Mehaffey's letter argues, constitutional ones.
Gov. Spanberger did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Her silence is notable given the speed at which opposition organized. Pro-Second Amendment organizations filed suit to strike down the bans as unconstitutional within minutes of Spanberger signing the bills Thursday evening.
Mehaffey's stand did not come in isolation. Andrew "Drew" Mullins, vice chair of the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors, praised the letter on X the same day. His post framed the county's position in unambiguous terms:
"My good friend and fellow Oath Keeper, Commonwealth Attorney Ryan Mehaffey is supporting our resolution declaring Spotsylvania County a 2A Sanctuary county. We will not comply with Governor Spanberger's infringement on our unalienable Constitutional rights."
The "Second Amendment sanctuary" designation reflects a broader movement that gained momentum across Virginia and other states in recent years, as local governments declared they would not devote resources to enforcing gun restrictions they consider unconstitutional. Spotsylvania County now appears to be putting that declaration into practice through its top prosecutor.
This is not the first time Spanberger has pressed forward on firearms restrictions despite clear legal warnings. The governor signed these bills knowing full well that the federal government had already signaled it would intervene.
The Trump administration wasted no time making its own position clear. On Thursday night, the same evening Spanberger signed the bills, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K. Dhillon posted on X what the Daily Caller described as a signal of the administration's intent to sue over the Virginia bans.
That signal carries weight. The Department of Justice had already sued the city of Denver on May 5 over a similar firearms ban. One day later, on May 6, DOJ filed separate litigation seeking to throw out Colorado's magazine ban. Virginia's new laws now appear to be next in the federal crosshairs.
The pattern is unmistakable. Democratic-led jurisdictions pass sweeping gun restrictions. The Trump DOJ files suit. Local prosecutors and sheriffs refuse to enforce. And the laws end up in court, where the Supreme Court's existing precedent, Heller in 2008, Bruen in 2022, has consistently expanded Second Amendment protections rather than contracted them.
Virginia Democrats have developed something of a habit of pushing legally dubious initiatives that end up overturned. The state Supreme Court recently threw out a Democrat-backed congressional map, reshaping the 2026 midterm landscape in the process.
Mehaffey's legal reasoning rests on solid ground, at least as the current Supreme Court has defined it. The Bruen decision in 2022 established that firearms regulations must be "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation" to survive constitutional scrutiny. The Heller decision protected firearms "in common use" for lawful purposes, a category that plainly includes the AR-15, given the 32-million-unit circulation figure.
Virginia's assault weapons ban attempts to restrict precisely the type of firearm Heller shields. Its public carry ban runs into the framework Bruen erected. Mehaffey's letter connects these dots in plain language, telling the sheriff that enforcing either law would mean enforcing something the Constitution forbids.
Whether other Virginia prosecutors follow Mehaffey's lead remains an open question. So does the response from Spanberger's office, which has yet to address the growing legal and enforcement resistance. Sheriff Harris's own position on the letter has not been publicly stated.
The broader pattern in Virginia is hard to miss. Democrats in Richmond have repeatedly advanced aggressive policy initiatives only to see them challenged, blocked, or invalidated. Their $64 million redistricting scheme was thrown out by the state Supreme Court. Their attempts to reshape congressional boundaries drew legal challenges accusing them of an unlawful power grab. Now their flagship gun control package faces simultaneous opposition from local prosecutors, county governments, Second Amendment organizations, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
The lawsuits filed minutes after Spanberger signed the bills will likely move through the courts in the coming months. The Trump DOJ's expected suit would add federal firepower to the challenge. And in Spotsylvania County, at least, the laws will apparently go unenforced, meaning law-abiding gun owners there will not face prosecution for possessing firearms that millions of Americans already own.
Mehaffey's letter puts the burden back where it belongs: on the officials who passed laws that appear to conflict with the highest court's reading of the Second Amendment. A local prosecutor deciding not to enforce a law is a serious step. But so is a governor signing a ban that her own state's legal tradition, and the Supreme Court, may not permit.
When the people who enforce the law say the law itself is unlawful, that is not defiance. It is the constitutional order working exactly as designed.
