It is shaping up to be a battleground year between firearms-restricting legislators and shooters who just want to do their thing without being hassled by The Man. Already, we’ve seen restrictive laws passed against semi-auto firearms in New Mexico, and similar laws in Virginia as well. But it’s not all doom-and-gloom for the 2A believers: Virginia has just backed off from a potentially crippling tax on suppressors.
Keepin’ quiet @ TFB:
Background noise
Virginia might seem like a Second Amendment stronghold, but since recent state elections, there have been several anti-firearm laws considered. This includes HB217, which just passed, saying “any person who imports, sells, manufactures, purchases, or transfers an assault firearm” is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill also bans the sale and import into Virginia of a “large capacity ammunition feeding device” (ie, a rifle magazine). Firearms made before July 1, 2026, are not under the scope of that new law, but it is still very restrictive.
Other potential law changes are brewing in Virginia, including a new tax on suppressors that would far exceed the recently withdrawn federal government tax. On January 1, 2026, the feds dropped their $200 tax that had been applied to suppressors ever since the National Firearms Act of 1934. There has been a boom in suppressor development and sales ever since, as was obvious at SHOT Show this year. Many, many companies were introducing new suppressors, with affordability now much less of a problem.
In recent weeks, it appeared that Virginia was about to apply its own state tax to suppressors, and they were about to significantly raise the price from the old federal rate of two hundred bucks.
What Virginia proposed
Virginia’s state government was considering not a $200 tax, but a $500 tax on each suppressor sold. The wording of proposed HB207 described it this way:
“Retail sales and use tax; firearm suppressor tax. Imposes a firearm suppressor tax equal to $500 per retail sale of any firearm suppressor by a dealer in firearms. The bill provides that the revenue from such tax shall be deposited in the general fund.”
There was no talk of using the $500 tax for crime-fighting or other such purposes, which is often the wording of so-called “sin taxes” on ammunition, firearms or firearms-related equipment.
What happened to HB207
As of mid-February 2026, HB207 is dead in the water. Legislators changed the wording when it was under consideration from the House Finance Committee, from a flat $500 tax to an 11 percent tax instead.
After presentations from the president of the American Suppressor Association and Gun Owners of America, the Committee unanimously decided to agree with leaving the motion “laying on the table.” That means HB207 should not come up for consideration anytime soon … and that gun owners’ hearing in Virginia will be safe for a while.
