Several prosecutors around the state, including in Page County, have vowed not to enforce a new law banning the sale and manufacture of weapons referred to as "assault firearms." In the meantime, gun sales are up, and local gun shop owners are trying to figure out how to navigate the restrictions. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
Steve's Archery and Guns inhabits a 2,800 square foot building behind a house in the town of Shenandoah. It's packed floor to ceiling with guns, ammo, scopes, holsters, bows, knives, fishing gear, tree stands, clothing, and more.
STEVE RODGERS: I've got a ton of rifle scopes in that showcase here on the floor, here on the counters right here …
Owner Steve Rodgers has been in business since 1983.
RODGERS: … Everything right there's night vision scopes and everything, and then all that shotgun ammo right here is for duck hunting, goose hunting, all that, I sell a pile of that stuff. … Then you get into the archery again. You got all your compound bows. You got all your arrows for the compound bows.
He also teaches hunter education courses for the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.
RODGERS: The majority, I'd say probably 95% of my business is hunting business, not so much the ARs.
As in, semi-automatic AR-15s – "AR" stands for ArmaLite Rifles.
RODGERS: But, you know, I don't knock anybody – if you like to go out here and go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang and shoot your money up in bullets or whatever, that's fine. … We've got people all over Virginia that are not really hunters, but they like to go shoot skeet.
Rodgers has seen his sales double so far this year, as word got around about proposed gun control legislation that Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed into law last month. WJLA reports that background checks for gun sales in Virginia more than doubled last month, compared to the number filed in May 2025.
The new law that's gotten the most flak from Second Amendment advocates, a so-called "assault firearms" ban, prohibits the sale and manufacture of certain semi-automatic guns. It was introduced in the House of Delegates by Dan Helmer, a Democrat representing Fairfax County. In a firearms subcommittee meeting in January, he said –
DEL. DAN HELMER [archive tape]: Weapons similar to those I carried in Iraq and Afghanistan should not be trafficked in our commonwealth. … I think the high capacity magazines that so oftentimes have been involved in instances of mass shootings that lead to mass death should be removed from Virginia.
One citizen who spoke in support of the bill, Lori Haas, became a gun violence prevention advocate after her daughter was shot twice and survived the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.
LORI HAAS [archive tape] Using weapons of war and high-capacity magazines increases the body count. That's people. That's children.
The law applies to semi-automatic guns with magazines that hold more than 15 rounds, or have a variety of other features, such as certain grips, a collapsible stock, or a threaded barrel that accepts silencers.
RODGERS: The people that are writing these bills don't even know the working parts of a gun. They keep saying "assault rifle." Well, in all my 11 distributors that I deal with, with probably hundreds of thousands of guns, there's not one gun that's listed as an "assault rifle." … I guess you can take a two-by-four and that would be an "assault" two-by-four. … This shotgun right here is actually, it's used for turkey hunting. So, because it has that type of grip on it like that, they consider that an assault rifle, or an assault shotgun.
Rodgers' shop is in one of a dozen or so Virginia counties where prosecutors and sheriffs have called this new law unconstitutional. Page County Commonwealth's Attorney and Marine Corps veteran Chapman Good wrote a letter opposing the ban which circulated on social media. He said hunting and gun ownership are a way of life in the valley.
CHAPMAN GOOD: It is a necessary part of a free society – gun ownership. So that the people are ready and able to defend themselves as they see necessary, as long as they are law-abiding, responsible citizens. And that's the way I was raised. My dad's been a deputy for 42 years here in Page County. … He instilled in me how important it is, how important gun ownership is, and the rights of the people to be able to own guns.
He believes the Supreme Court of Virginia will strike down the "assault firearms" ban and a "public carry ban" that makes it illegal to carry one of those weapons on a road or in a nature area open to the public.
GOOD: The Supreme Court was clear in Miller, all the way back in 1939, that common-use firearms cannot be restricted in this way. The estimates that I saw are that there are more than 30 million AR-15s in the United States. That seems like pretty common use to me.
He also points to Virginia law, which outlines a state militia consisting of all able-bodied citizens between 16 and 55 years of age who could be called into service by the governor.
I asked him about the argument that guns with high-capacity magazines in the hands of private citizens enable mass shootings.
GOOD: I have a difficult time accepting the fact that some people misuse something, therefore, other people should not be able to use it. I think that is a poor way to govern. People get drunk and drive all the time. It's a constant issue of public safety that every community deals with. But we don't take away alcohol and we don't take away vehicles, right? We just make it illegal and we arrest those people.
Rodgers says, until the courts settle the matter, he just won't sell some of his inventory starting July 1.
RODGERS: They don't know what they're writing and they're trying to take our rights away. I can tell you right now, out here in the valley, we're a different breed of people than in the cities. I mean, we like our guns, and we like what's right and wrong.
How the judiciary sees it will be determined through active cases filed in county circuit courts and the federal courts.
