CIVIL RIGHTS UPDATE: Virginia AG is Making the Process the Punishment in the Old Dominion’s War on Guns.

Jay Jones, the anti-gun but pro-bullets to the head Virginia attorney general, announced on September 15 the creation of the Firearms Accountability & Industry Responsibility Unit within the Civil and Criminal Justice & Public Safety Divisions of his office. The unit’s job will be to bring civil enforcement actions against firearm industry members under the recently enacted Virginia Firearm Industry Standards of Responsible Conduct.

True to the Orwellian spirit of the gun control enterprise, the process promises to be anything but fair. The fact that the AG’s office is spinning up an entire unit to target a lawful and constitutionally protected business sector begs the question, just what are Virginia’s gun dealers doing wrong? The answer, under Virginia’s new legislation, is that they’ll find out when they get sued for it.

Gun bans get most of the attention when it comes to firearm policy, and this applies to both sides of the issue. But with the U.S. Supreme Court poised to determine the constitutionality of banning some of the nation’s most popular firearms, gun prohibition advocates are already planning their next offensive. Their target is the U.S. firearms industry, already one of the most heavily regulated in the country.

As Virginia’s law illustrates, however, compliance with known rules will no longer be enough under the new regime.

“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime,” the old checkist is supposed to have said.