Virginia’s attempt to ban the sale of assault weapons failed in the state’s Senate, where four centrist Democrats realized something important: Aggressive gun control doesn’t work.

House Bill 961, which passed the Virginia House 51-48 only to be killed in a Senate committee by a 10-5 vote, would have prohibited the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms and restricted the use of magazines that hold more than 12 rounds.

Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, championed the bill, but the dozens of Virginia counties that designated themselves “Second Amendment sanctuaries” were proof that the bill would have faced serious pushback had it become law. This could be why three of the Democratic state senators who represent “sanctuary counties” — Sens. Scott Surovell, John Edwards, and Creigh Deeds — voted against the bill. A blanket ban on the nation’s most popular sports rifle would have affected these Democrats’ electability given their constituents’ stated opposition to gun control.

But on paper, the reason Surovell, Edwards, Deeds, and Chap Petersen voted against the assault weapons ban was its lack of evidence. Study after study disproves the notion that restricting assault weapons improves public safety, as Brad Polumbo recently explained. The Virginia legislature didn’t bother to contest these facts or conduct studies of its own, Surovell argued.

“The votes in the Senate have not existed to pass the bill since we gaveled in, and the bill has numerous issues that needed to be refined,” Surovell said in a statement, noting that HB 961 will now move to a commission where it will be molded into “a more workable product.”

These Democrats made the right call. Any law limiting the rights of citizens requires substantial justification, and right now, the only defense Virginia Democrats have offered is that an assault weapons ban was a campaign promise and therefore must be passed.

But that won’t be enough to convince the thousands of law-abiding gun owners in Virginia to give up a basic right.

Virginia’s gun control efforts will continue, but last week’s vote is a sign that passing legislation won’t be as easy as state Democrats had hoped — at least, not while the centrists hold on to their common sense.