Jones Moves to Salvage Appeal After Judge Strikes Down Virginia Background-Check Law

With the clock ticking, Attorney General–elect Jay Jones filed a motion this week asking the Virginia Court of Appeals to extend the commonwealth’s deadline to appeal a recent ruling that struck down the state’s background-check law for private firearm sales.

Gun safety advocates at the Moms Demand Actions rally in Richmond on Jan. 15, 2025. (Photo by Markus Schmidt/Virginia Mercury)

The request — if granted — could buy more time for Virginia to mount a legal defense and potentially restore the law.

Under state law, the commonwealth had until Dec. 1 to file a notice of appeal after the Wilson v. Hanley decision. Because outgoing Attorney General Jason Miyares did not pursue the appeal, the right to challenge the ruling would have expired — potentially leaving the background-check requirement for private sales dead.

Virginia Democratic Attorney General candidate Jay Jones speaks at a campaign rally in Norfolk on Nov. 1, 2025. (Photo by Charlotte Rene Woods/ Virginia Mercury)

Jones’s motion asks that the deadline be extended to Jan. 30, 2026.

“Virginians demanded an attorney general who will stand up for their safety, and that’s exactly what I’m doing,” Jones said in a statement. “Background checks save lives and are essential to keeping guns out of dangerous hands. This motion protects Virginia’s ability to appeal this ruling, defend our laws, and keep our communities safe from gun violence.”

In October, a Lynchburg-area circuit court struck down the universal background-check law, holding that it ran afoul of both state and federal statutes — particularly as they apply to 18- to 20-year-old adults.

The law, enacted by Democrats in 2020 as part of a sweeping gun-safety package and effective on July 1 that year, had applied to nearly all firearm transfers.

Under federal law, licensed dealers cannot sell handguns to buyers under 21; yet state law allows those same 18- to 20-year-olds to legally possess handguns. By requiring all private transfers to go through licensed dealers and the federal background-check system (NICS), the law effectively denied those adults any legal way to acquire a handgun, advocates say.

In his decision, Judge F. Patrick Yeatts declined to address the constitutionality of background checks generally.

Instead, he found the statute’s structure so flawed that the entire law had to be struck down. He noted that the commonwealth could attempt to craft a revised law that treats all age groups equally — an approach used in other states such as Nevada, which mandates minimum ages carefully calibrated to avoid similar legal traps.

Supporters of the 2020 law — part of a broader post-2019 gun-control push — had argued that universal background checks were a commonsense way to close the “private sale loophole.” With the law now enjoined statewide, attention has turned to whether the legislature will attempt to rewrite it.

Pushback from gun-rights advocates

But not everyone welcomes Jones’s intervention.

Virginia Citizens Defense League President Philip Van Cleave dismissed the court filing as improper.

“Hopefully the request will be turned down since Jones has no authority until mid-January after he has been sworn in. The current attorney general is the one who counts,” Van Cleave said in an email.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, at the Lobby Day rally at the Virginia state Capitol in Richmond on Jan. 20, 2025. (Photo by Markus Schmidt/Virginia Mercury)

He added, “Interesting that Jones, who was fantasizing about murdering someone and wishing death on that person’s children, is now suddenly concerned with saving lives” — a reference to a revelation publicized ahead of the Nov. 4 election that Jones, in 2022, sent violent text messages to a Republican lawmaker in which he mused about the death of then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his children.

Van Cleave also questioned the premise behind universal background checks.

“I’ve seen no statistics to indicate that universal background checks have saved any lives. The vast majority of criminals don’t submit to background checks,” he said.

Meanwhile, Rooz Dadabhoy, president of Rally Virginia — a group describing itself as “the home of the modern Republican woman” — reacted sharply on X, formerly Twitter. Dadabhoy accused Jones of mounting “an assault on the Second Amendment BEFORE he even takes office.”

Referring to the same text message scandal, she wrote: “Jay Jones himself shouldn’t even be able to own a gun because he clearly has deranged, violent fantasies.”

She added that the move comes amid an effort by Democrats to hold firearm retailers liable for crimes committed with guns they sell — even if those sales comply with state law. “Virginia Democrats are absolutely coming for your right to ‘keep and bear arms,’” she declared.

Virginia is at a crossroads — as are other states

The legal battle unfolding in Virginia reflects a broader trend.

As courts scrutinize fine print and statutory conflicts, universal background-check laws in several states may be vulnerable — especially where federal age restrictions collide with state-level firearm rights.

Experts say the ruling and Jones’s appeal — if successful — could serve as a blueprint for other states seeking to restore or defend similar statutes in the post-New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen era. That 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision struck down New York’s restrictive concealed-carry permitting system and held that modern gun laws must be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.

For now, Virginia’s background-check law remains in limbo.

If the Court of Appeals grants the extension, the state will have until Jan. 30 to decide whether to press its case — and critics and advocates alike are bracing for the next round in what could be a defining legislative battle over gun policy and constitutional rights.

by Markus Schmidt, Virginia Mercury

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