Elections have consequences. Sometimes those consequences show up fast — like when one of the nation’s largest defense contractors decides it’s seen enough and heads for the exits barely a month after the new governor takes office.
That’s exactly what happened in Virginia this week. Boeing announced it’s yanking its Defense, Space & Security headquarters out of Arlington and heading back to St. Louis — the same division it moved to Virginia in 2022 when business-friendly Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin was making the Commonwealth an attractive place to build things that go boom in defense of this country. Youngkin’s gone now. Abigail Spanberger is in charge. Boeing didn’t need to wait for a second term to read the room.
And here’s the part that should have every Virginia gun owner sitting up straight: the same agenda that sent Boeing packing is the same one coming for your AR, your standard-capacity magazines, and anything else Democrats have decided you don’t need.
Spanberger wasn’t in office five minutes before Virginia Democrats came out swinging with roughly 40 gun-related bills this session. The crown jewel is House Bill 217 — a flat-out ban on so-called “assault firearms,” targeting semiautomatic centerfire rifles equipped with magazines over 20 rounds, folding stocks, or the ability to accept a suppressor. Violators face Class 1 misdemeanor charges. The legislature also advanced a 10-round magazine cap that would instantly criminalize thousands of law-abiding Virginians who currently own perfectly legal standard-capacity mags. They’re also pushing a $500 state tax on suppressors — right after the federal $200 NFA tax was zeroed out. Because nothing says “we respect your rights” like a punitive tax on a hearing protection device.
Let’s be clear about where Spanberger comes from on this. She’s a former volunteer for Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action. Everytown for Gun Safety dropped $1 million in paid media to put her in the governor’s mansion and personally contacted a quarter-million Virginia voters to make it happen. This isn’t a politician who stumbled into gun control. This is a true believer with a compliant legislature and a pen that’s itching to sign everything Youngkin kept in the trash.
House Minority Leader Terry Kilgore called HB 217 exactly what it is — a direct defiance of Bruen and a blatant attempt to criminalize the most commonly owned rifles in America. He’s right, and the lawsuits will fly. But that’s the point. These people don’t care if their laws get struck down eventually. They want them on the books now, and they want Virginians living under the threat of prosecution in the meantime.
Meanwhile, Boeing is heading to Missouri — a constitutional carry state — where Secretary of War Pete Hegseth showed up at the St. Louis plant to congratulate the workers and call them “patriots that are key elements to ensuring peace through strength.” Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe called it a “win for the heartland.” Hard to argue.
The connection here isn’t subtle. The political environment that makes Boeing decide Virginia is no longer worth the risk is the same environment that looks at a law-abiding gun owner and sees a criminal-in-waiting. Both are targets of the same ideological project. Both are being told that their presence — whether as a defense manufacturer or as an armed citizen — is no longer welcome in the new Virginia.
Youngkin kept the wolves at bay. Spanberger opened the gate. Virginia gun owners knew this was coming. Now it’s here.
Stand your ground, Virginians. The Virginia Citizens Defense League, Gun Owners of America, and the NRA-ILA all have active campaigns running right now. Use them.
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