Virginia gun control bill fails

A bill that would have banned military-style rifles in Virginia was defeated in the state Senate on Monday, a sign of the limited power of the state’s new Democratic majority in enacting the most restrictive elements of its gun-control agenda and a blow to Gov. Ralph Northam’s efforts to restrict gun possession.

The prohibition on military-style rifles was the most contentious of a series of gun-control bills making their way through the state Legislature this year and the centerpiece of Democrats’ attempts to restrict firearms after a gunman fatally shot 12 people in Virginia Beach last May.

The state is at the heart of a long-simmering debate related to the nation’s uneasy accommodation regarding gun laws, with Democrats in the state’s urban areas and suburbs supporting gun-control measures, while many rural residents have mounted large gun-rights protests in response.

The assault-weapons bill rejected Monday would have prohibited the sale, purchase, manufacture and most transfers of military-style weapons, as well as large-capacity magazines holding more than 12 rounds. It would have also banned trigger activators, including bump stocks, designed to make weapons simulate automatic machine-gun fire.

Four Democrats on the 15-member Senate Judiciary Committee joined six Republicans in voting to send the proposal to a state commission for further study. The measure is likely to be debated again next year, lawmakers said.

The Democrats represent both suburban and urban areas, and each of the lawmakers had supported other gun-control measures this session.

But one of the Democrats, R. Creigh Deeds, said there was discomfort in enacting an outright ban because lawmakers had failed to arrive at a consensus definition of what constitutes an assault weapon despite weeks of negotiations. Deeds said there remained “a lot of questions” about the definition.

The initial version of the measure would have prohibited all assaultstyle weapons in the state, which would have required owners to turn them in. But that version was recently overhauled to allow owners to keep their weapons.

On Monday, Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, the group that organized a massive gun-rights rally at the Virginia State Capitol last month, praised the vote on Twitter.

“VICTORY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ” Van Cleave tweeted.