The governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, decided to start the new year off with a bang. Or perhaps we should say a reduction in bangs. He submitted new gun control legislation with some serious teeth in it and a disturbing lack of details. Under Northam’s plan, assuming it’s enacted, Virginia will not only ban the sale of a potentially wide variety of common firearms but allow the police to confiscate them from any residents already owning one. (Free Beacon)

The plan to ban the sale and possession of certain kinds of firearms proposed by Virginia governor Ralph Northam (D.) could affect millions of gun owners, an industry group said on Friday. The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), which represents gun manufacturers and dealers, said the vague description of the legislation released by Northam on Jan. 4 would apply to most firearms currently on sale in the commonwealth. “The legislative proposals being discussed would put most firearms beyond the reach of law-abiding Virginians who choose the firearms of their choice to protect themselves, hunt, and practice recreational target shooting,” said Lawrence G. Keane, the group’s general counsel. “That could potentially impact the availability of tens of millions of firearms.”

It won’t take you very long to read the bill’s summary because, as I indicated above, it’s short on details. What we know is that the plan would “ban the sale, purchase, possession, and transport of undefined ‘assault firearms’ including ‘any firearm that is equipped with a magazine that holds more than 10 rounds of ammunition.'”

That’s some wild gun-grabbing even by Democrat standards. Also worth noting is that it not only bans the sale of such products, but the possession of them. And there’s no grandfather clause included for people who already own them. That means that, if passed into law, gun confiscations from law-abiding citizens could begin as soon as the law goes into effect.

You can’t just go ahead and pass a law that includes made-up language in it with no definitions. Northam isn’t even sticking with the more popular (among liberals) term “assault rifles.” He’s going further down the rabbit hole with “assault firearms.” I assume this means any semi-automatic rifle with a pistol grip or anything else “scary looking” attached. But now it could bring in a whole host of handguns as well.

Fortunately for the Second Amendment, Republicans still control both chambers in the legislature of Virginia, but only by very slim margins. This should be a warning to the state’s residents that a couple more seats lost in 2020 could open the door to precisely what we’re seeing here.