In an ongoing legal battle, a Lynchburg City judge has ordered Virginia State Police to again stop conducting background checks on private gun sales.
Lynchburg Circuit Judge Patrick Yeatts on Wednesday rejected the state's effort to throw out an injunction he issued in October striking down Virginia's law requiring universal background checks on private firearm sales.
VSP posted a notice on its website after Wednesday's hearing that says it "currently cannot provide criminal history background checks for the private sale of firearms" after the order.
"The Commonwealth will carefully review the order once it is entered and provide additional information as directed by the court in our continued defense of Virginia's life-saving background check laws." Rae Pickett, Attorney General Jay Jones' communications director, said in a statement.
Yeatts' ruling was first reported by Cardinal News, which also reported in late May that VSP was not doing checks on private firearm sales after Gov. Abigail Spanberger signed legislation into law restoring universal background checks — which immediately took effect April 22.
The Virginia Citizens Defense League, one of the plaintiffs behind the legal challenge, hailed the Lynchburg court's decision as a victory.
In a phone interview Thursday, VCDL President Philip Van Cleave said he feels confident because the plaintiffs' arguments "struck a chord with the judge."
"We anticipate the law being DOA," he told VPM News.
Background on Virginia legislating background checks
With full control of the governor's mansion and General Assembly in 2020, Democrats passed a gun control agenda that included the UBC law.
The law, which first took effect in July 2020, required VSP to run background checks on all gun sales in Virginia.
Federal law bars licensed dealers from selling handguns to people under 21, but people 18 and up can buy handguns from unlicensed sellers who do private sales at gun shows — without having to do a background check. This is often referred to as the "gun show loophole."
When the universal background check law took effect in July 2020, state law allowed people who are between 18 and 21 to own handguns.
The 2020 law didn't outlaw private handgun sales to people under 21, but it required purchases to undergo background checks using the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), which is operated by the FBI.
The federal system automatically stops handgun transfers to people under 21, "thus effectively barring them from lawfully purchasing a handgun," Yeatts wrote in his October 2025 order.
To address this issue, VSP started to attend gun shows in Virginia to run the required background checks using a separate statewide system.
A coalition of Virginia residents and pro-gun rights groups — including the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Gun Owners of America Inc. and the Gun Owners Foundation — challenged the UBC rule for private handgun sales.
But Yeatts directed the state and the plaintiffs in the ongoing case, which started in 2020, to present arguments on whether the law should be struck down entirely. Last October, Yeatts ruled that Virginia's law "cannot pass constitutional scrutiny."
"The statute as it stands, cannot remain intact," Yeatts wrote in his Oct. 16 order. "If the legislature wishes to rewrite the law to create a system that does not impose disparate treatment based on age, it may do so."
And that's what the General Assembly tried to do with HB1525, which aligns state and federal law to prohibit people under 21 from legally buying a handgun or assault firearm.
It also called to revive the universal background check law from 2020.
And now?
The law went into effect once Spanberger signed the legislation on April 22, because it included an emergency clause. (New state laws typically take effect on July 1, when the fiscal year begins.)
According to Cardinal News, VSP had not begun background checks until May 27 despite the new law, when VSP announced it would restart the reviews. But with Yeatts' ruling on Wednesday, the checks only lasted a week.
"Polls have repeatedly shown that more than 80 percent of Virginians support universal background checks — including a majority of gun owners and Virginians from every part of the political spectrum," a Spanberger spokesperson said in a statement.
While Yeatts didn't dissolve the injunction, the case is ongoing, and he directed both sides to submit arguments for a hearing before the end of June, according to Van Cleave.
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