Title 18.2. Crimes and Offenses Generally
Chapter 7. Crimes Involving Health and Safety
§ 18.2-287.4:1. Importation, sale, manufacture, etc., of assault firearms prohibited; penalty.
A. As used in this section:
"Assault firearm" means the same as that term is defined in § 18.2-308.2:2.
"Federal firearms licensee" means any person who is licensed pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 923, as amended, as a federally licensed firearms dealer, importer, or manufacturer.
B. Any person who imports, sells, manufactures, purchases, or transfers an assault firearm is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.
C. The provisions of this section shall not apply to (i) any government officer, agent, law-enforcement officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces of the United States, security personnel at a contracted defense facility as defined in § 18.2-121.3, or person authorized by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to the extent that such person is otherwise authorized to acquire or possess an assault firearm and does so while acting within the scope of his duties; (ii) the import of an assault firearm by any member of the Armed Forces of the United States, or his spouse, who possessed an assault firearm prior to being in the Commonwealth and is sent to the Commonwealth under lawful orders; (iii) the import, barter, manufacture, transfer, purchase, or sale of an assault firearm by a federal firearms licensee to another federal firearms licensee, persons authorized to purchase an assault weapon, any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, senior military colleges in the Commonwealth organized under 10 U.S.C. § 2111a(f), or to a law-enforcement officer or agency for use by that agency or its employees; (iv) any member of a cadet corps who is recognized by a public institution of higher education while such member is in the performance of lawful military training or such member is participating in an official ceremonial event for the Commonwealth; (v) the sale of an assault firearm by a person who lawfully purchased and possessed such assault firearm prior to July 1, 2026, to a firearms dealer or to an individual outside of the Commonwealth who may lawfully possess such assault firearm; (vi) the temporary transfer of an assault firearm by a person who lawfully purchased and possessed such assault firearm prior to July 1, 2026, to a federal firearms licensee or gunsmith and the return of such assault firearm to its owner; (vii) the receipt of an assault firearm by inheritance, and possession of the inherited assault firearm if the decedent lawfully possessed such assault firearm prior to his death and the person inheriting such assault firearm is not prohibited from possessing firearms by state or federal law; (viii) an assault firearm temporarily loaned by a firing range operated by a federal firearms licensee for lawful use solely for target shooting or firearms training within the physical premises of the firing range; (ix) the import of an assault firearm by a person who lawfully purchased and possessed such assault firearm prior to July 1, 2026; or (x) the transfer of an assault weapon as a gift to an immediate family member if the transferor lawfully purchased and possessed the assault firearm prior to July 1, 2026, and the immediate family member to whom the assault firearm is transferred is not prohibited from possessing firearms under state or federal law. For the purposes of this subdivision, "immediate family member" means a spouse, children, parents, grandparents, and siblings.