Virginia's new assault firearms ban is scheduled to take effect July 1 — but the two legislators who wrote it cannot agree on what it actually makes illegal, raising serious questions about how police and prosecutors will interpret and enforce the law in the weeks ahead.

The contradiction surfaced publicly in a WAMU radio segment that ran in mid-June. State Senator Saddam Salim, the Senate sponsor of SB749, told the outlet that he believes the law would only be relevant when a firearm is connected to some other criminal act. "If you happen to get [a firearm] from North Carolina, and then you come to Virginia, and you don't commit any crimes, none of us know that you have this," Salim said. His framing implies that simple possession or transport of a newly-acquired covered firearm into Virginia — absent any other illegal conduct — would not trigger the statute.

Delegate Dan Helmer, the House sponsor, took a diametrically opposite position. "Anybody who brings an assault weapon into Virginia after July 1 is committing a misdemeanor and could face consequences," Helmer stated, describing the law as applying to any person who transports a covered firearm into the Commonwealth after the effective date, regardless of whether any other crime occurs.

Both statements cannot be true at the same time. The statute's text creates a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person who "imports, purchases, sells, transfers, or manufactures" a firearm Virginia classifies as an assault firearm after July 1. Import is one of the enumerated acts — which, read plainly, would align with Helmer's interpretation. Salim's reading would require a court to graft a criminal-nexus requirement onto a statute that contains no such language.

The practical stakes are significant. Virginia borders North Carolina, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, and Washington D.C. Hunters, competitive shooters, and gun owners driving through the state with affected rifles in their vehicles after July 1 could face criminal exposure under the law's plain text — and the Salim framing offers cold comfort given that prosecutors, not legislators, interpret statutes in court.

AmmoLand News noted that the contradictory statements illustrate a broader enforcement vacuum that exists because none of the four pending legal challenges to SB749 have obtained injunctive relief ahead of the effective date. Gun Owners of America filed an emergency writ of mandamus petition with the Virginia Supreme Court on June 16, asking the court to force an expedited ruling or issue its own emergency injunction before July 1. The Virginia Citizens Defense League and John Crump are co-plaintiffs in that filing. A separate NSSF-funded case in Fauquier County requested a hearing by June 19.

Unless the Virginia Supreme Court acts before July 1 or the consolidation panel tasked with coordinating the four lawsuits reaches any decision that enables emergency relief, Virginians — and anyone transporting covered firearms through the state — will be operating under a statute whose sponsors cannot agree on what it prohibits.