An Act to amend and reenact § 18.2-308.5 of the Code of Virginia and to amend the Code of Virginia by adding a section numbered 18.2-308.5:2, relating to manufacture, importation, sale, transfer, or possession of plastic firearms and unfinished frames or receivers and unserialized firearms prohibited; penalties.
HB40 expands Virginia’s restrictions on firearms that are difficult to detect or that lack serialization. The bill amends existing law on plastic or otherwise nondetectable firearms and adds a new section prohibiting the import, purchase, sale, offer for sale, transfer, or possession of completed or unfinished frames or receivers unless they are treated as firearms under federal law and bear a valid serial number.
Under the amended nondetectable-firearm provision, it remains unlawful to knowingly manufacture, assemble, import, buy, sell, transfer, or possess a plastic firearm or a firearm that cannot be detected by common security screening devices after removal of all but a major component. The bill defines key terms such as “plastic firearm,” “major component,” “frame,” and “receiver,” and makes violations a Class 5 felony. The new section also defines “unfinished frame or receiver,” “valid serial number,” and related licensing terms, tying the definitions closely to federal firearms law and federal licensing categories.
HB40 changes Virginia’s criminal code by strengthening and clarifying prohibitions on ghost guns, unserialized firearms, and plastic or otherwise undetectable firearms. It creates a new offense for dealing in completed or unfinished frames or receivers without a valid serial number and continues to criminalize manufacture, sale, transfer, and possession of nondetectable firearms. The bill affects firearm owners, sellers, manufacturers, importers, gunsmiths, and anyone involved in the sale or transfer of unfinished firearm components, while also reinforcing compliance with federal definitions and serialization standards.
The bill appears to have been enacted without recorded committee transcript debate or vote detail in the provided materials, so there is no documented floor or committee sentiment to summarize. Based on the text alone, the measure reflects a public-safety and law-enforcement approach to regulating firearms that are hard to trace or detect. The absence of recorded opposition or support in the supplied context suggests no visible controversy in the available record, though the subject matter is typically associated with broader gun-regulation debates.
The main points of contention likely center on the scope of the ban and the definitions of regulated items. In particular, the bill reaches unfinished frames or receivers, which may affect hobbyists, home builders, and retailers of firearm parts, and it relies on federal-law definitions that can be technically complex. Another likely issue is the felony penalty and whether the law could be seen as targeting so-called ghost guns and unserialized firearms more broadly than traditional firearms regulation.