Virginia Judge Extends AR-15 Ban Injunction to State Agencies Through December 31

A Lancaster County judge on November 2, 2026 extended his June 30 injunction against Virginia’s ban on AR-15-style rifles and magazines over 15 rounds to the Commonwealth, its agencies and its employees.

Circuit Court Judge John S. Martin partially granted the plaintiffs’ second motion to enlarge the preliminary injunction in Crump v. Katz, Case No. CL26000201-00, after a hearing on October 20. AmmoLand, whose contributor John Crump is the lead plaintiff, published the order’s operative language on November 3, and the order itself is not posted online. The order says the Commonwealth, its agencies and employees “are hereby preliminarily enjoined subject to the same terms and duration outlined in the Preliminary Injunction entered June 30, 2026 and Order entered September 10, 2026.” Martin denied the motion in all other respects.

The original case named Virginia State Police Superintendent Jeffrey S. Katz as a defendant. Plaintiffs then sought a wider order so that enforcement could not shift to other state authorities.

The Commonwealth opposed the expansion. Assistant Attorneys General Calvin C. Brown and Pebbles I. Burgess expressly objected to extending the injunction to the Commonwealth, its agencies and officials. Martin granted that part of the motion anyway.

The law at issue is Senate Bill 749, which Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed in May. It targets firearms the state labels “assault firearms,” including AR-15-style rifles, and prohibits certain transactions involving magazines capable of holding more than 15 rounds. Virginia officials had intended to begin enforcing the restrictions on July 1.

Martin’s June injunction blocks enforcement through December 31, 2026, or until further court action. The new order keeps those terms and that end date for the added defendants, and it cites a September 10 order on the same terms.

The plaintiffs are AmmoLand contributor John Crump, Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, Virginia Citizens Defense League and Virginia Citizens Defense Foundation. They argue the restrictions violate Article I, Section 13 of the Virginia Constitution. That section says “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The order does not create a permanent injunction or finally strike down the law. It extends the existing preliminary relief to additional state defendants and keeps the terms set by the court’s earlier orders. It also does not expressly identify every local sheriff, police department or Commonwealth’s Attorney as a newly enjoined party.

For Virginia owners, the practical position is that state enforcement of the restrictions stays blocked on those terms through December 31 unless the court acts first. The litigation in Crump v. Katz continues.

A separate federal track runs in Washington. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the consolidated cases Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins, which ask whether bans on AR-15-style rifles and similar semiautomatic firearms violate the Second Amendment. Those cases follow District of Columbia v. Heller, which affirmed that firearms commonly possessed by law-abiding Americans for lawful purposes fall within the Second Amendment’s protection. Arguments are set for December 2, 2026.