Virginia Judge Rules Universal Background Check Law Unconstitutional

A Virginia circuit court judge has struck down the state’s so-called Universal Background Check (UBC) law, delivering a major win for Gun Owners of America (GOA), Gun Owners Foundation, and the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL). The case, Wilson, et al. v. Colonel Matthew D. Hanley, resulted in a permanent injunction halting enforcement of the law across the Commonwealth.

Headlines are already framing this as a broad attack on “universal background checks” in general. But if you read the decision carefully, something more specific is going on. The judge didn’t simply declare that requiring background checks on private transfers is always unconstitutional. Instead, he found that Virginia’s specific UBC scheme collided with other state laws and ended up stripping an entire class of adults of their ability to exercise a recognized right.

For more background on what universal background checks are and why gun owners have long opposed them, see our in-depth explainer here: What Are “Universal Background Checks”?

What Virginia’s Universal Background Check Law Did

Virginia’s UBC law was passed in 2020 as part of a broader gun control push. Like many similar laws in other states, it required that all firearm sales and transfers — including private, person-to-person transfers — be processed through a federally licensed dealer (FFL) so that a background check could be run.

On paper, that might sound “reasonable” to people who don’t understand how firearms law actually works. In practice, this kind of law assumes that routing everything through FFLs is both workable and harmless. The Virginia decision exposes how false that assumption is, especially when you put it next to other statutes already on the books.

The Core Conflict: 18–20-Year-Old Adults Caught in a Legal Trap

Here’s where the law really fell apart. Under Virginia law, adults aged 18–20 are allowed to legally possess handguns. The state has long recognized that 18-year-olds are legal adults, and nothing in the relevant statutes outright bans them from owning or carrying handguns.

But the UBC law said that in order to acquire a firearm — even from a private seller — the transfer had to go through an FFL. And under federal law, FFLs cannot transfer a handgun to anyone under 21.

So when you put all of this together, you get a constitutional train wreck:

• Virginia law: 18–20-year-olds may lawfully possess handguns.
• UBC law: all transfers must go through an FFL.
• Federal law: FFLs are prohibited from transferring handguns to those under 21.

The unavoidable result is that 18–20-year-old adults had no legal way to acquire a handgun at all. The state effectively said, “You’re allowed to own this,” while simultaneously closing every lawful pathway to actually obtain it.

The court recognized this as more than just a minor drafting error. By eliminating every legal avenue for these adults to acquire a handgun, the Universal Background Check law functionally destroyed their ability to exercise a right that state law acknowledged they possessed. That’s what the judge found unconstitutional.

This Ruling Is Not a Blanket Ban on the Concept of UBCs

Gun control advocates and some media outlets will likely claim that this decision is an extremist attack on background checks or a sign that courts are “out of control” after Bruen. That’s not what the ruling actually says.

The decision doesn’t hold that any requirement for background checks on private transfers is automatically unconstitutional. Rather, it says that Virginia’s particular version of universal background checks cannot stand because of how it interacts with other state and federal laws—specifically, the laws governing young adults and handgun purchases.

In plain language: if a state wants to impose a universal background check regime, it can’t do it in a way that leaves an entire class of lawful adults with a right they’re not allowed to exercise in the real world.

Why This Matters Beyond Virginia

Many states already have universal background check laws on the books, including my own state of Colorado. Most of these laws use the same basic model: force all sales and transfers through FFLs, call it “closing the gun show loophole,” and declare victory for “gun safety.”

But if a state:

• Allows 18–20-year-olds to possess handguns, and
• Requires all handgun transfers to go through FFLs who, under federal law, can’t sell to those same 18–20-year-olds,

then it may be creating the exact same constitutional problem Virginia just ran headlong into.

The Virginia ruling is a warning shot: lawmakers can’t just layer gun control on top of gun control and assume it will all “work out.” When the final product is a legal maze that makes it impossible for otherwise lawful adults to exercise their rights, courts are increasingly willing to step in.

GOA, GOF, and VCDL: Fighting the Details That Matter

Gun Owners of America, Gun Owners Foundation, and the Virginia Citizens Defense League deserve major credit for pushing this lawsuit from the beginning. It’s easy for some people—even some gun owners—to shrug off “technical conflicts” in the law as no big deal. This case proves how dangerous that attitude is.

It was the details that mattered here.

GOA, GOF, and VCDL zeroed in on those conflicts and showed the court that, in practice, Virginia’s UBC law did far more than “close loopholes.” It blocked otherwise lawful adults from ever legally obtaining a handgun—turning a “common sense safety measure” into a direct infringement.

The Bigger Universal Background Check Conversation

At ConcealedCarry.com, we’ve covered universal background check proposals for years. Supporters promise that these laws will stop criminals from getting guns. But criminals, by definition, don’t follow the law. They steal guns, buy them on the black market, use straw purchasers, or simply ignore the transfer requirements entirely.

Meanwhile, UBC laws:

• Trap ordinary gun owners in technical felonies for harmless, everyday behavior.
• Push all transfers into a system that can easily become a de facto gun registry.
• Create situations—like we just saw in Virginia—where lawful adults are cut off from exercising their rights.

That’s why gun owners, trainers, and serious students of the Second Amendment have long argued that UBC laws are not just ineffective but fundamentally dangerous to liberty.

What Happens Next in Virginia?

The state’s political leadership isn’t likely to accept this defeat quietly. An appeal is expected, and anti-gun legislators are already talking about how to “fix” or replace the law. No matter what happens next, this ruling is a powerful reminder that courts are scrutinizing gun control laws more closely in the post-Bruen world.

For now, Virginia’s UBC law has been struck down as unconstitutional. That’s a big win for gun owners in the Commonwealth and a significant data point in the larger national fight over universal background checks.

However the appeals play out, one lesson is already clear: you cannot preserve a constitutional right by making it impossible to exercise. Any state that tries to repeat Virginia’s mistake should expect to see its laws dragged into court next.

To dive deeper into the broader debate on universal background checks—including statistics, legislative history, and common talking points—check out our article: Everything You Need to Know About Universal Background Checks.