Staff Reports
A Virginia commonwealth’s attorney and U.S. Marine veteran has done something simple and brave: he told his sheriff he will not enforce Governor Abigail Spanberger’s new assault weapons ban. Ryan Mehaffey of Spotsylvania County put his oath to the Constitution ahead of political theater. That matters — a lot — for the rule of law, the Second Amendment, and the sanity of local law enforcement.
A prosecutor draws a line
Ryan Mehaffey, the commonwealth attorney for Spotsylvania County, sent a clear letter to his county sheriff saying he will not enforce the AR-15 and assault weapons ban signed by Governor Abigail Spanberger. Mehaffey, a Marine veteran, called the law unconstitutional and said it “cannot be lawfully enforced.” That’s not grandstanding. It’s the job of prosecutors to decide which laws should be pursued, and he’s saying this law fails the constitutional test right out of the gate.
On the Constitution and the militia clause
Mehaffey pointed to the founding-era language about the right to keep and bear arms, noting the key constitutional question: does this kind of weapon have a reasonable relationship to a well-regulated militia? That’s the kind of legal test courts use when Second Amendment cases land before judges. If you believe in strict textual limits on government power, a prosecutor who refuses to enforce a plainly unconstitutional law is following the Constitution — not political convenience.
What the new law actually does
The law signed by Governor Spanberger makes importing, selling, purchasing, or transferring certain semiautomatic rifles and shotguns a criminal act — a Class 1 misdemeanor in the new text. It also restricts so-called large-capacity magazines and targets certain centerfire pistols. In plain English: popular semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15 are in the crosshairs, along with magazine capacities many Americans use for sport and home defense. The law is sweeping and will inevitably trigger legal fights.
Why this refusal matters for Virginia and beyond
This is about more than one county or one sheriff’s workload. It’s about the role of local prosecutors, the balance between state power and individual rights, and the message sent to ordinary Virginians who lawfully own firearms. When an elected prosecutor says a law is unconstitutional, it forces the question where it belongs — in the courts, not in partisan press releases. If Governor Spanberger wants this to stick, she’ll need more than headlines; she’ll need a winning argument in court and the buy-in of local officials who actually enforce the law. Until then, Mehaffey’s stance is a reminder that not every law voted into existence is automatically enforceable — especially when it bumps up against the Constitution.
