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Spanberger Faces 2nd Amendment Test as Virginia Gun Bills Loom

Saul Loeb/Getty Images

John Commerford is executive director of National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action.

THE CENTER SQUARE—Abigail Spanberger has been governor of Virginia for only a few months, yet she already faces a political crossroads.

The 75th governor of Virginia campaigned on a promise to govern as a moderate, one who would work with both political parties and be tough on crime. She was a law enforcement agent after all, and a CIA operative. She’s all in on America’s security.

On her own website she pledged to “focus on bringing Virginians together, lowering costs for Virginia families, keeping our communities safe,” among other promises.

So far, Spanberger’s actions haven’t meshed with her campaign rhetoric.

She is enthusiastically embracing a far-left activist agenda of the Democrat Party. One must ask if this is a smart political strategy for Spanberger as her continued drift to the left could damage her national political aspirations, just as it has for other Democrats who ran moderate but governed progressive.

Sweeping Gun Control Agenda Takes Shape

For the present, Spanberger is signaling that she will support new gun control measures, which we have long argued will do little, if anything, to reduce violent crime. Instead, they’ll make it harder for law-abiding gun owners to protect themselves and their families.

Some of the worst anti-gun bills on the governor’s desk include Senate Bill 749, which bans the most common semi-automatic firearms in Virginia and arbitrarily limits magazine capacities. Senate Bill 727 outlaws carrying and transporting many types of firearms on public property. This includes many semi-automatic rifles and pistols.

Senate Bill 27 and House Bill 21 target the firearms industry by imposing vague, subjective standards of “responsible conduct” for manufacturers and opens the door to lawsuits and regulations that are clearly designed to drive the firearms industry out of Virginia. This legislation is not only focused on firearm manufacturers, it even includes your local gun shop. House Bill 40 would end the centuries old practice of individuals building firearms for personal use without government interference.

Immigration Enforcement and Public Safety Reversals

And while the fate of these bills that will limit Virginians’ ability to defend themselves still hangs in the balance, Spanberger has made other moves that make the commonwealth less safe.

Immediately upon taking office, she rescinded former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s order allowing Virginia’s law officers to support federal immigration enforcement. Spanberger called lawful immigration enforcement “fear-based policing, enforcement theater” and actions that create “barriers to people seeking assistance in their time of need.”

And when an illegal immigrant and serial criminal, Abdul Jalloh, stabbed 41-year-old Stephanie Minter to death at a Northern Virginia bus stop, Spanberger’s office and Fairfax District Attorney Steve Descano refused to turn him over to immigration authorities. Instead, Spanberger set a new standard for ICE interactions with Virginia law enforcement, telling them to get a judicial warrant, knowing full well that such a step was unnecessary, unprecedented, and unlikely to succeed. She did this despite Jalloh’s 30 prior arrests, including for violent crimes like assault and malicious wounding. 

Is this the moderate, former law enforcement governance she talked about on the campaign trail?

Virginians should also be dismayed by her quick reversal on gerrymandering. Though she had spoken forcefully against it as far back as 2024, she changed her tune quickly when Virginia Democrats offered her the chance to revamp the commonwealth’s electoral map from a 6 to 5 split to 10 Democrat and a single Republican district.

‘Moderate’ Campaign Meets Reality

When Spanberger won in November, she was hailed as a party up-and-comer—a young, pragmatic former civil servant, with real law enforcement and security credentials who could appeal to independents. Her potential for even higher office was reinforced when the party chose her to deliver the Democrat response to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address.

But potential is one thing, and a governing record is another.

Whether Spanberger will stay true to her professed centrist roots and sustain her long-term electability options or cave to the more partisan leanings of her colleagues in Richmond, is an open question. The answer to that question will begin to be revealed in the coming days as she weighs whether to sign off on the slew of anti-gun bills rammed through the legislature.

If the governor chooses to exercise her power and sign these unconstitutional infringements into law, the National Rifle Association and our team of constitutional appellate attorneys stand ready to meet her in both state and federal court.

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