From a legal perspective Virginia’s NFA collectors have it pretty good.
In the Commonwealth, so long as all federal requirements are met, one can generally own suppressors, short-barrelled rifles, short-barrelled shotguns, and the other items included in the miscellaneous ‘any other weapon (AOW)’ category.
In addition, machine-guns may be owned so long as all federal requirements are met and the machine-gun is registered with the Virginia State Police within 24 hours of its acquisition.
In fact, there is only a single class of firearm that is completely denied to Virginia’s NFA collectors. It is the Striker 12 ‘Street Sweeper’ Shotgun or any shotgun of ‘like kind’.
§ 18.2-308.8. Importation, sale, possession or transfer of Striker 12’s prohibited; penalty.
It shall be unlawful for any person to import, sell, possess or transfer the following firearms: the Striker 12, commonly called a “streetsweeper,” or any semi-automatic folding stock shotgun of like kind with a spring tension drum magazine capable of holding twelve shotgun shells. A violation of this section shall be punishable as a Class 6 felony.
This Virginia statute was enacted in 1993 and in 1994, pursuant to ATF Rulings 94-1 and 94-2 these shotguns were classified as destructive devices under the National Firearms Act.
Therefore, we are left with the absurd result that an NFA item, which would otherwise be permitted to a Virginia collector, is prohibited by name in an outdated statute.
Until such time as this can be corrected legislatively, collectors need to be aware of this limitation.
