In a ruling issued Thursday, the Spotsylvania Circuit Court denied a request for preliminary injunction in the Curtis v. Katz challenge to Virginia’s semiautomatic firearm/magazine ban. Article 1, Section 13 of the Virginia Constitution recognizes an individual right to arms as members of the unorganized militia, plaintiffs argued, and “the rifles and handguns prohibited by the Firearms Ban are ‘quintessential Militia Arms.”
Despite those inarguable conclusions, Judge William E. Glover is allowing the ban to proceed.
True, he concedes, Plaintiffs will suffer “irreparable harm if the Ban becomes effective and is later determined to be unconstitutional.” But considering a “balance of hardships to the parties… it does not outweigh the potential of harm to the Commonwealth.” does not
And he does not concede the Court can make a finding that “a legally viable claim… will… succeed on the merits.” Just the opposite.
“The Court is currently persuaded that both the history and practice surrounding Sec. 13 establish no individual right to possess military style weapons by members of the unorganized militia,” Glover states.
“The public is entitled to the implementation of laws” created by the representatives and approved by the Governor, Glover concludes. If the ban is struck down later, “the balance between the legislature judiciary is maintained [but] to enjoin the legislature preliminarily is not… in the public interest.”
This correspondent has been invited to attend a Zoom meeting conducted by the Counsel of Record on Friday afternoon and plans to submit relevant observations in an update to this article.
The Court’s opinion is embedded below.
ZOOM Meeting Update
The press update meeting began at 1:00 pm Eastern and lasted half an hour. Ken Cuccinelli presided. In attendance were Plaintiff Dustin Curtis, myself, AmmoLand’s Brian Johnson, Alan Gottlieb of SAF/CCRKBA, Armed American Radio’s Mark Walters, Philip Van Cleave and Patricia Webb of VCDL, author and journalist John Petrolino, Stephen Gutowski of The Reload, Joe Dodson of Courthouse News, and NAGR’s Taylor Rhodes.
Cucinelli’s bottom line—their case is unique because no one has ever litigated and resolved a complaint based on the Militia clause, and as things now stand, Virginia does not admit to any limit and can essentially ban any arm it wants.
The question on everyone’s mind: Will the case be appealed? They have 15 days. He would like to and will give the matter serious consideration.
Also, because he expects to be busy, he will give no individual interviews but will periodically issue statements as appropriate.
Rather than summarize via incomplete contemporaneous handwritten notes, I have been provided with a formatted transcript courtesy of Mark Walters using ChatGPT.
Editor’s Note: Updated at 2:30 pm EST 6/19/2026 to include Zoom Meeting Update.
Virginia Gun Ban Lawsuit Argues Banned Arms Are Militia Arms
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.
The judge used interest balancing to rule, something they are supposedly not allowed to do. He said the law was passed for public safety, and that outweighs the recognized harm to citizens. Yet again, woke judges rewriting the Constitution and ignoring scotus.
Obviously a lefty judge who wrongly decided no harm comes to the public in disarming them. Harm DOES come to the public when they are disarmed, so his decision is working contrary to his wish for pubic safety. The argument that legislatures and judiciary must be separated by allowing these laws to take effect speaks to a sad set of rules, and I would suggest those rules need revision urgently. The judge acknowledges the hardship the industry stakeholders will experience but dismisses them pretty conveniently and with nonchalance.
The odd thing that most folks don’t understand is, the AR-15 rifle was introduced to the civilian market in 1957! The M-16 was developed in the 1960s as a replacement for the M-14 Service Rifle! Therefore, it should not be considered a knockoff of the M-16!
The opposite is therefore the case!
Not to beat a dead horse but if gun owners and Evangelical Christians had shown up at the polls in November we would not be having this discussion.
In all CONSTITUTIONAL REALITY, the SO-CALLED-JUDGE mr.glover is a LEFT LEANING ACTIVIST “judge” and needs to be investigated for Anti-Constitutional OPINIONS and calls it at lawful call! He MUST be brought before the BAR and REMOVED!
Come try to take them and see what happens next.
Arm up and carry on
Someone should start making AR’s that bypass all Virginia’s aesthetic issues. Make a small, medium and large version with stocks fixed but of various lengths. No thread on the barrel. A pinned and welded muzzle device on some models. Heck, the way it’s worded from my recollection they could probably have tri lug and key mount adapters permanently attached. In every way, blatantly shove the work-around in their faces.
December 15, 1791 – Bill of Rights ratified. 10 Amendments. The second one says, “Shall NOT Be Infringed”.
That is ALL I need to know. All else is illegal. All attempts to infringe are illegal and have NO standing. I shall ignore.
I had observed the statues governing the arming of the Virginia Defense Force, from its inception. I thought then, as now, that those statutes were in direct conflict with VA Const. Art 1 Sec. 13 and certainly Bruen. Judge Glover is a spineless worm, afraid to risk his future appointment to higher judgeships.
The pigs are the liberal militia. And anybody that scrambles with liberals, scrambles with the pigs.