Legislative Accomplishments

Every year VSSA's lobbying team is at the General Assembly working with legislators to defeat bad bills and pass good bills.  By the time the legislators walk into a subcommittee or committee meeting, they have met with your lobbying team and know the VSSA position on every bill.  You may not see our name in the newspaper or TV news as having stood up in committee to address a bill but rest assured, the committee members know our position and we are confident at the time the committee meets that your rights will be protected by the Delegates and State Senators.

The biggest success of the last four years came in 2020 when VSSA, working with other pro-rights organizations, including NRA, VCDL, and the American Suppressor Association, defeated HB961, a bill that would have banned the most popular firearms in the country including AR-style firearms.  VSSA and the other firearm rights groups were successful in lobbying three Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee to side with all of the Republicans on the committee to defeat the bill.  This year, our lobbying team successfully worked with the Governor's office and other gun groups to get 30 gun ban bills vetoed by Governor Youngkin. Our fight now is to repeal the bad bills that were passed in 2020.  To do that we will once again need to elect a pro-rights House and Senate as well as have a pro-rights Governor.  That's why we need every gun owner in Virginia to vote, and to vote their rights on election day. 

Besides lobbying the General Assembly, VSSA has been very active joining amicus briefs supporting some of the most important firearm-related cases at the appellate court level as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.  These cases include Heller, McDonald vs. Chicago and Bruen.  We are also part of a brief currently before the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals challenging Maryland's so-called "assault weapons" ban.  This case is particularly important because Virginia is part of the 4th Circuit and a decision overturning the law will impact the ability for a similar law to be passed in Virginia.  No matter what the 4th Circuit decides however, the case may likely end up again at the U.S. Supreme Court and VSSA will be there.