"The Virginia General Assembly apparently doesn`t want to be outdone by California and the few other outlier states testing the Supreme Court to see if it really means it, as it stated in Heller, that the Second Amendment protects (at a minimum) "arms `in common use at the time` for lawful purposes like self-defense." Virginia enacted HB 217/SB 749, effective July 1, making the transfer or purchase of an "assault firearm" (defined to include popular semiauto firearms) and magazines holding over 15 rounds a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by incarceration for one year. A second offense makes it unlawful to possess any firearm for three years.

"In signing the bill on May 14, Governor Abigail Spanberger stated: "While the General Assembly chose not to adopt my amendment that specifically carves out certain firearms frequently used for hunting, I will work with the patrons to clarify this language." The governor is correct to concede a point that will be used in litigation challenging the new law, as the Virginia Constitution protects the right to hunt. I explain the origins of that recognition in "The Constitutional Right to Hunt: New Recognition of an Old Liberty in Virginia," published in William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal (2010).

"But the governor ignores that the banned firearms are also "frequently used" for training, target practice, and self-defense. Besides being protected by the federal Second Amendment, the banned firearms are guaranteed under the Virginia Constitution...."
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"Three lawsuits have already been filed seeking to have the gun ban declared unconstitutional and enjoined...."

The above excerpts are from my latest Second Amendment Roundup blogpost, "Virginia Bans `Assault Firearms`" (5/24/26).
Read my whole post at reason.com/volokh or copy and paste this link: https://reason.com/volokh/2026/05/24/second-amendment-roundup-virginia-bans-assault-firearms/

Link can also be accessed through the home page of my website, stephenhalbrook.com
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#virginiagunban #2aviolation #stephenhalbrook #secondamendmentroundup #abigailspanberger ...

Today is Memorial Day in the United States, a day set aside to honor the American service members who died while serving in the military.

Originally called Decoration Day, the observance was established by Civil War veterans in 1868 as a time to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers with flowers. Communities across the country participated, honoring both Union and Confederate dead in the years following the war.

After World War I, the meaning of the day expanded to remember all Americans who died in military service. The red poppy later became a symbol of remembrance, inspired by the famous World War I poem In Flanders Fields.

Decoration Day eventually became known as Memorial Day and was officially recognized as a federal holiday in 1971.

Photo: Arlington Cemetery on Memorial Day
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#memorialday🇺🇸 #decorationday #rememberfallensoldiers #supportourtroops #redpoppyremembrance ...

Henri Guisan "was a full-time colonel from the French-speaking part of the country. He was bilingual and commanded a German-speaking army corps before commanding a French-speaking corps." On August 30, [1939], anticipating that general war was imminent, the Swiss Parliament unanimously elected Colonel Henri Guisan as commander-in-chief of the army....Reflecting the country`s anti-militarist tradition, in peacetime the highest rank in the army was colonel, but in wartime Parliament was empowered to elect the commander-in-chief, with the rank of general....

"As general, Guisan would represent the ordinary citizen-at-arms. During the course of the war, this common man and inspirational military leader would come to symbolize the Swiss spirit of resistance."

From Halbrook, Target Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II, pgs. 59, 76.

Photos: General Guisan and his FN Browning Model 1906 pistol. The pistol is on display at the Morges Military Museum, located inside the historic Château de Morges within the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland.
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#generalguisan #Switzerlandhistory #armedneutrality #ww2history #targetswitzerland ...

"Referring to `the natural right of self-defense,` Montesquieu in The Spirit of the Laws (1748) asked, `Who does not see that self-defense is a duty superior to every precept?` ....

"Criminal laws that interfered with self-defense by punishing harmless conduct would be doubly unreasonable. `It is unreasonable ... to oblige a man not to attempt the defense of his own life.` The misuse of arms for aggressive violence, rather than their use in self-defense, should be punished: `Hence it follows, that the laws of an Italian republic [Venice], where bearing fire-arms is punished as a capital crime and where it is not more fatal to make an ill use of them than to carry them, is not agreeable to the nature of things.`"

From Halbrook, That Every Man Be Armed: The Evolution of a Constitutional Right, p. 34.

Image: Smith & Wesson print advertisement (circa 1907-1910).
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#montesquieu #bearingarms #capitalcrime #thateverymanbearmed #smithandwessonad ...

Law professor and judge, St. George Tucker, wrote the first commentaries on the U.S. Constitution. His "1803 edition of Blackstone`s Commentaries contrasted the Second Amendment from the English Declaration of Rights: `The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed...and this without any qualification as to their condition or degree, as is the case in the British government....` Tucker called the Second Amendment `the true palladium of liberty,` explaining:

"`The right of self defence is the first law of nature; in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any colour or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.`

"By contrast, the people of England had been disarmed under the pretext of preserving game animals. Moreover, in England `the right of bearing arms is confined to protestants, and the words suitable to their condition and degree, have been interpreted to authorise the prohibition of keeping a gun...to any farmer, or inferior tradesman, or other person not qualified to kill game.`"

From Halbrook, The Right to Bear Arms: A Constitutional Right of the People or a Privilege of the Ruling Class?, p. 185 (hardback edition).
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#stgeorgetucker #blackstonescommentaries #2ahistory #englandsgunlaws #therighttobeararmshalbrook ...

"[T]he term `Uzi` is simply the name of a firearm designer, Uzi Gal. When he died, it was reported: `Mr. Gal was strongly opposed to the gun being named for him, but the management of IMI insisted. "Uzi’ is an abbreviation of the Hebrew phrase "God is my might."’” From Halbrook, America`s Rifle: The Case for the AR-15, p. 281.

Gal was born in Weimar, Germany in 1923. By the age of 10, he was skilled in gunsmithing and archery. It was also at that time that he and his family fled Nazi Germany.

Photo: Uzi Gal and his Uzi (via National Library of Israel).
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#UziGal #AmericasRifleTheCaseForTheAR15 #firearmhistory #submachinegun #gunsmith ...

When my daughter Lisa and her sons visit, we like to get in some target practice. This time we shot a Swiss Luger, M1 Carbine, and Karabiner 98k.

#targetpractice #swissluger #M1carbine #Karabiner98k #historicfirearms ...

Switzerland and the U.S. share a common heritage. Both have been from their beginnings independent republics. The births of the Swiss Confederation in 1291 and the United States in 1776 are extraordinary episodes in history in which peoples banded together to win their freedom. Despite today`s vast difference in size and population, Swiss local democracy is a kind of template of American local democracy. That is why Switzerland and the United States, despite occasional bumps on the road, will inalterably remain Sister Republics.

"Massive state terrorism during World War II had to be confronted and resisted by any means at hand. Like the Americans, the Swiss had their own `Greatest Generation,` and it included all of those who were ready to lay down their lives had the Nazi armies come over the border. How exactly tiny Switzerland stood down the Nazi monolith is a lesson worth remembering in the annals of history."

From Halbrook, The Swiss and The Nazis: How the Alpine Republic Survived in the Shadow of the Third Reich, p. 306.
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#wwiihistory #Swisshistory #swissarmywwii #theswissandthenazis #armedneutrality ...