Virginia Governor Wants Big Gun Bill Expansions (Ft. VCDL's Philip Van Cleave)

Virginia Governor Wants Big Gun Bill Expansions (Ft. VCDL's Philip Van Cleave)

From The Weekly Reload Podcast by Stephen Gutowski

April 20, 2026 · 53 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the Virginia gun bills and the implications of Governor Abigail Spanberger's proposed changes with VCDL President Philip Van Cleave.

This week, we're doing a deep dive into the gun bills that have reached the final phase of the Virginia legislative process. That process is pretty unique, with Governor Abigail Spanberger (D.) having a rare ability to change bills after they've already passed. To break down how that process works and what Spanberger is trying to accomplish, we have Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) President Philip Van Cleave back on the show. The changes pushed legislation in both directions, but Van Cleave said VCDL was very angry with the overall suggestions Spanberger made. That's because her recommendations to moderate a few gun bills were far less significant than those to double down on other restrictions. Specifically, he argued the changes Spanberger pushed for the "assault firearm" carry and sales ban were the most significant. He said Spanberger's language change for what constitutes an "assault firearm" is confusing and could be read to be extremely expansive. He argued even if you take the most restrictive reading, the move would effectively ban the carry of the 15+ magazines the bill bans the sale of. That would be a substantial tightening of the proposed…

People in this episode

Host: Stephen Gutowski

Guest: Philip Van Cleave

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Virginia Citizens Defense League

Places: Virginia

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