Judge Shoots Down Virginia's Plan For Universal Background Checks

In the past few months, Virginia has quickly become a battleground state in the back-and-forth scrapping over firearms rights. One of the state government’s most recent moves, the reinstatement of universal background checks for firearms sales, has been opposed by Lynchburg Circuit Judge Patrick Yeatts, who ordered state police to stop performing background checks on private sales.

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The background on universal background checks

In the U.S., gun sales through a licensed firearms dealer must be accompanied by a background check to make sure the buyer is not ineligible to purchase a firearm. This is where NICS numbers come from; many states use the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) to determine whether a purchaser is actually allowed to buy a firearm. Other states have their own systems, but overall, if you want to buy a gun from a licensed dealer in the U.S., you’ve got to be cleared first.

The federal law that requires background checks at the dealer level does not require the same restriction for private gun sales. If you want to buy a firearm from a friend, neighbor or relative, you just pay your money and get your gun. For many years, anti-firearm activists have called this the “gun show loophole,” since many private firearms sales were done at gun shows. Gun control activists were not happy with this arrangement and have sought to apply the same sales restrictions to private transactions.

In Virginia, they actually succeeded with this goal in 2020 when the state government passed a law requiring all private firearms sales to also be accompanied by a background check (read the law here).

In October of 2025, Judge Yeatts issued an injunction against this law, but in April of 2026, the Virginia state government doubled down. As the state passed a law prohibiting adults aged 18-20 from purchasing handguns and some semi-auto firearms, the legislators also tacked on an emergency clause reinstating the universal background checks. Attorney General Jay Jones also filed to have Yeatts’ injunction dissolved in early May, and the state’s lawmakers put the Virginia State Police back in the universal background check business at the end of the month.

However, firearms rights groups challenged the move and Yeatts issued a ruling saying his injunction from last October was still in effect at this point, and that law enforcement had to cease their background checks for private sales. The state police complied, and a statement on their website says they do not provide background checks for such transactions, nor are they required.

This does not mean the issue will not raise its head again down the road, but for now, universal background checks are effectively dead in the state of Virginia.