Attorney General Jay Jones’ office filed a request Monday seeking to dissolve a Lynchburg court ruling that has halted background checks for the private sale of firearms since October.
That request from Jones’ office seeks to allow key provisions of a recently enacted gun bill to become enforceable.
The bill, HB 1525, patroned by Del. Garrett McGuire, D-Fairfax, was amended by Gov. Abigail Spanberger on April 14. Her actions included an emergency enactment clause to allow the bill to immediately go into effect after the General Assembly accepted her amendments during the April 22 reconvene session.
McGuire’s bill, as amended by Spanberger, increased the age for legal purchase of handguns and assault firearms from 18 to 21 years old and restored universal background check requirements for the private sale of firearms.
It is unclear whether Virginia State Police have been conducting background checks for private sales since the emergency enactment of the legislation, however.
“VSP is currently working diligently with the administration to effectuate the provisions of the new legislation,” said state police spokesperson Robin Lawson, via email, when asked on April 30 if the agency was conducting checks for private firearm sales.
The origin of the ‘Lynchburg loophole’
In Virginia, firearm sales fall into two distinct categories, and each has been handled differently under state law. Sales conducted through licensed firearms dealers are required to include a mandatory background check. Dealers are also responsible for verifying identification, completing all required reporting and may charge fees for these services, Lawson said.
Private firearm sales operate differently. Private transactions occur directly between two unlicensed individuals. Unlike licensed dealers, private sellers are not subject to the same identification or reporting requirements, Lawson said.
Efforts to require background checks for private sales have been fraught with legal challenges in recent years.
The Virginia General Assembly passed a law in 2020 that required background checks for the sale of all firearms in the commonwealth. In order to obtain a background check, the purchaser needed to go through a licensed dealer that used the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. That system automatically rejects purchasers under 21 years old — the federal age requirement to purchase a handgun.
The legal age to purchase a handgun in Virginia was 18 years old before the April 2026 emergency enactment of HB 1525. That difference in age requirements between the state and federal government led to a number of legal challenges regarding constitutional rights for Virginians between the ages of 18 and 20, after the 2020 bill was enacted. To settle those legal challenges, a mechanism was created by the state that required Virginia State Police to attend gun shows to conduct background checks for buyers under the age of 21. State police used a different system, bypassing the NICS, that allowed purchasers between 18 and 20 years old to legally buy handguns through private sales at gun shows.
But in October, a permanent injunction granted by Lynchburg Circuit Court Judge Patrick Yeats in an ongoing case halted all background checks for the private sale of firearms in Virginia, including sales that take place at gun shows.
Before that ruling, Virginia State Police had been present at gun shows across the commonwealth for years to perform background checks of attendees seeking to purchase firearms from private sellers.
“Since October 2025, we’ve had this giant loophole where there are no background checks being performed on private sales of firearms for anybody,” McGuire said. “The main concern is that people that shouldn’t have guns are getting guns.”
McGuire’s bill with Spanberger’s amendments passed on party-line votes. The legislation aimed to close the nearly 7-month lapse in background checks in the private sale of firearms, known as the “Lynchburg loophole.” The legislation also increases the legal age to buy handguns and assault firearms in Virginia to 21 to align with the federal requirement and to restore universal background checks in the commonwealth. The bill includes exceptions for students in ROTC or law enforcement training.
Del. Wendell Walker, R-Lynchburg, voted against McGuire’s bill.
“The right to keep and bear arms is a constitutional right, not a privilege handed out by government,” Walker said in a statement. “The Lynchburg Circuit Court recognized that Virginia’s previous law unfairly denied law-abiding citizens their constitutional freedoms, and this motion to dissolve the injunction is just another attempt to infringe upon the constitutional rights of Virginians. The Second Amendment is clear, and it should not be treated as optional depending on who is in power.”
Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League and a plaintiff in the Lynchburg case, said he was not surprised that Jones is seeking a dissolution of the October injunction.
“I don’t know what will happen with that,” he said. “It’s still an unconstitutional law, so ultimately I don’t know where this is going to end up.”
Jones’ request to dissolve the Lynchburg injunction
Attorney General Jay Jones argued, in his request to dissolve the Lynchburg Court’s October injunction, that the passage of HB 1525 had aligned the legal age to purchase certain firearms in Virginia with the federal standard and had effectively rendered the case moot. His request was filed in the Lynchburg Circuit Court on Monday.
“Background checks save lives,” Jones said in a statement. “Our motion identifies for the court the material change in circumstances in passage of HB1525, warranting dissolution of the injunction and restarting background checks to keep Virginians safe. My office will use every legal tool available to us to ensure that only law-abiding Virginians are able to purchase firearms, no matter where they live in the Commonwealth.”
As of Thursday, the attorney general’s office had not yet received a reply from the Lynchburg court. Rae Pickett, spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, said that the court could rule at any time. She added that the attorney general’s office expects the court to follow the law.
“Based on that response, we’ll figure out what the next steps are in terms of making sure we close this loophole,” McGuire said. He noted that his motivation for patroning the legislation was directly related to his experience as a student on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007, when a gunman opened fire and killed 32 people while wounding 17 others.
As of Thursday afternoon, the Virginia State Police website said: “Virginia law does not currently require, and VSP will not provide, criminal history background checks for the private sale of firearms.”
