In my article on SB749: Will Virginia Disarm the Righteous While Criminals Stay Armed?, I documented how Virginia Democrats created three classes of Virginians: police who keep their full-capacity magazines, law-abiding citizens whose standard magazines are trapped in a shrinking legal box they can’t freely buy, sell, or replace, and criminals who ignore the law entirely. I showed how SB749 bans the sale, transfer, and purchase of magazines over 15 rounds—turning hundreds of thousands of Virginians into owners of property they can never replace while doing nothing to disarm criminals.
Today, the mask came off completely.
On March 14, 2026, the Joint Conference Committee released the House Substitute for HB 110—a bill requiring Virginians to lock handguns in hard-sided containers when leaving them in unattended vehicles or face criminal charges. Buried in the conference report is a provision most Virginians will never hear about unless someone tells them:
Subsection G: “The provisions of this section shall not apply to any member of the General Assembly who leaves a handgun in an unattended motor vehicle pursuant to § 18.2-308.7:1 when such vehicle is parked in any parking structure reserved for members of the General Assembly under § 2.2-1172.”
Read that again. The same legislators who voted to criminalize how you store your handgun exempted themselves from the Capitol Square firearms ban so they can leave handguns in their cars at the legislative parking garage.
But it gets worse.
Section 18.2-308.7:1, Subsection C(iii): The new vehicle storage requirements—locked hard-sided container, out of plain view—“shall not apply to…any motor vehicle parked in the parking structure on the west of the Capitol as referenced in subsection A of § 2.2-1172.”
So here’s your two-tier system in black and white: You leave a Glock in your glove compartment at a Walmart parking lot—Class 4 misdemeanor under HB 110. A legislator leaves one unsecured in their car at the Capitol garage—and HB 110’s storage rules simply don’t apply. They carved themselves out of the very misdemeanor they created for you.
Four Classes of Virginians: The System Is Now Complete
In my SB749 article, I identified three classes of Virginians under the Democrats’ gun control regime. HB 110’s conference report just added a fourth:
Class 1: Legislators. Exempt from the Capitol Square firearms ban. Exempt from the vehicle storage requirements. They can leave handguns in their cars at the Capitol parking garage outside HB 110’s storage rules—no locked container requirement, no HB 110 criminal exposure. The people who write the law carved themselves out of the law they wrote.
Class 2: Law Enforcement. Police officers keep their 30-round magazines and standard-capacity sidearms. Exempted from SB749 and HB 110. Virginia Democrats believe officers need effective tools to stop violent criminals—just not you.
Class 3: Law-Abiding Citizens. Under SB749, you can never again buy, sell, or transfer magazines over 15 rounds—and if you don’t already own them before July 1, 2026, you never will. You must lock your handgun in a hard-sided container out of plain view in your vehicle under HB 110 or face a Class 4 misdemeanor. You comply or you’re prosecuted.
Class 4: Criminals. Criminals ignore every one of these laws. They don’t comply with magazine restrictions. They don’t lock handguns in approved containers. They don’t care about SB749 or HB 110 any more than they care about laws against robbery, carjacking, or home invasion. These bills have zero impact on people who already operate outside the law.
The hierarchy is now explicit: Lawmakers are most protected. Police are next. Citizens are criminalized. Criminals are unaffected. This is not an accident—it is the architecture of control.
The Philistine Weapon Ban Gets a VIP Lounge
In my SB749 analysis, I cited First Samuel 13:19-22, which records the Philistines’ weapon ban against Israel: “Now there was no blacksmith to be found throughout all the land of Israel, for the Philistines said, ‘Lest the Hebrews make themselves swords or spears.'” The Philistines disarmed the Israelites to keep them subjugated. Only Saul and Jonathan—the leaders—had weapons.
HB 110 makes the parallel even more precise. The Philistine leaders didn’t just keep their weapons while Israel was disarmed—they wrote themselves a formal exemption into the law. The rulers keep their swords. The people are restricted from theirs. And the exemption is written in the statute for everyone to see, if anyone bothers to read it.
Proverbs 11:1: “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.” When the lawmakers who write gun restrictions exempt themselves from those restrictions, they have placed their thumb on the scale. The law is not equal. The balance is false. And God calls it an abomination.
Romans 13 Inverted: The Pattern Continues
Across Virginia’s Perfect Storm, the Anti-Police Triple Threat, and my SB749 analysis, I have documented the same pattern: Virginia Democrats have systematically inverted the purpose of government established in Romans 13:3-4.
God’s design is clear: government exists to be “a terror to bad conduct, not to good.” Government bears the sword “as the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.”
Virginia Democrats have turned every element on its head:
HB863 is written to wipe out mandatory minimum sentences for violent felonies—rapists, child predators, armed robbers, carjackers—and it has already cleared key hurdles in a legislature steadily dismantling mandatory minimums. The sword is dulled against evildoers.
HB1314 and HB7 expose officers to personal lawsuits for good-faith decisions and load new civil and criminal penalties onto how police use protective gear during riots, turning the sword-bearer himself into the target. The sword-bearer is targeted.
SB749 bans citizens from buying, selling, or replacing standard-capacity magazines while criminals keep theirs and police remain armed. The innocent are disarmed.
HB 110 now adds the crowning hypocrisy: the lawmakers who built this entire system exempt themselves from the restrictions they imposed on you. The rulers stand above their own law.
This is no longer just Romans 13 inverted. This is Ezekiel 34:2-4: “Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured.”
Virginia’s political shepherds feed themselves while the flock is disarmed, unprotected, and criminalized for trying to defend their own families.
What You Won’t Hear in the Media
The media will tell you HB 110 is about “safe firearm storage.” They’ll describe it as a “common-sense measure” to prevent gun theft from vehicles. What they won’t tell you:
They won’t tell you that the conference committee—a joint panel of House and Senate members—added the legislative exemption on March 14, the last day of session. This wasn’t in the original bill. It wasn’t debated in public committee hearings. It was inserted into a conference report, where it received less scrutiny and no independent public comment period.
They won’t tell you that HB 110 started as a simple civil penalty bill and emerged from conference as something entirely different. The original bill created a $500 civil penalty for leaving a visible handgun in a vehicle. The conference substitute rewrites Capitol Square firearms law, creates a new criminal offense (Class 4 misdemeanor), and carves out legislative exemptions—all in a bill whose title still says “civil penalty.”
They won’t tell you the math. The House agreed to this conference report 60-36. Sixty Virginia legislators—the same people who lectured you about gun safety, who told you these restrictions were necessary to protect children, who insisted nobody is above the law—voted to exempt themselves from the law they imposed on you.
Isaiah 10:1-2: “Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people.”
Run the Scenario
In my SB749 article, I asked readers to imagine a 3am home invasion. Under HB 110, the scenario gets more absurd:
You drive to a grocery store in Richmond. You’re a legal gun owner, concealed carry permit holder, and responsible citizen. You leave your locked Glock in your glove compartment while you shop for ten minutes. Under HB 110, that’s a Class 4 misdemeanor unless the glove compartment qualifies as a “locked hard-sided container” and the handgun is “out of plain view.”
The same day, a Virginia delegate drives to the Capitol, leaves an unsecured handgun sitting on the passenger seat of their car in the legislative parking garage. HB 110’s storage rules don’t apply to them. The Capitol Square firearms ban doesn’t apply to them. They carved themselves out.
You face criminal charges. They face nothing. You followed the law your entire life. They wrote the law to exclude themselves.
Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” There is no justice in a law that criminalizes citizens while exempting the people who wrote it. There is no humility in legislators who place themselves above the rules they impose on everyone else.
What You Can Do Right Now
First, share this article. Most Virginians will never read the conference report. They don’t know about Subsection G. They don’t know about the parking garage exemption. The only way they find out is if you tell them. Share this with every gun owner, every church member, every neighbor who believes the law should apply equally. Print it. Email it. Post it on social media.
Second, contact Governor Spanberger’s office. HB 110 now goes to the Governor’s desk. Call (804) 786-2211. Say this:
“I’m calling about HB 110. The conference report exempts General Assembly members from the vehicle storage rules they imposed on every other Virginian. This is a two-tier system—legislators above the law, citizens under it. Veto HB 110 or demand the exemption be removed.”
Third, demand accountability from your delegate and senator. Sixty delegates voted yes on this conference report. Find out if yours was one of them. Ask them directly: “Why did you vote to exempt yourself from a law you imposed on me?”
Find your legislator: https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/
Fourth, demand your pastor address this from the pulpit. As I wrote in my SB749 article, self-defense is not politics—it is biblical stewardship. When government creates one set of rules for the rulers and another for the ruled, that is tyranny. Scripture addresses tyranny directly, and your congregation needs to hear it.
Finally, pray. Pray that God would expose this hypocrisy to every Virginian. Pray that Governor Spanberger would have the integrity to veto a bill that exempts lawmakers from the rules they impose on citizens. Pray that Virginia Christians would stand firm, speak boldly, and refuse to accept a government that disarms the righteous while protecting the powerful.
The lie that “we shouldn’t talk politics in church” is powerful—but HB 110 is not about partisan labels. It is about justice, equality before the law, and the God-given duty to protect our families. When the people who write the law place themselves above it, silence is not neutrality; it is complicity. God calls His people to stand, not sit on the sidelines, when rulers oppress the people they are supposed to serve.
The Line in the Sand Just Moved
In my SB749 article, I called that bill “the line in the sand.” HB 110’s legislative exemption isn’t a new line—it’s proof that the people drawing the lines never intended to stand behind them.
SB749 told you: your standard-capacity magazines are now trapped—you can keep them, but you can never buy, sell, or replace them. Step out of line and become a criminal.
HB 110 tells you: and by the way, the people who imposed those restrictions carved themselves out.
James 2:1,9: “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory… But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.”
God hates partiality. Virginia Democrats just wrote it into statute.
The time for action is now. Contact the Governor. Confront your legislators. Share this article. Mobilize your church. And refuse to accept a system where your rulers stand above the law they wrote to control you.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeff Bayard serves as Content Manager for Virginia Christian Alliance, providing analysis of legislation and cultural issues from a biblical worldview.
RELATED ARTICLES
- SB749: Will Virginia Disarm the Righteous While Criminals Stay Armed?
- Virginia’s Anti-Police Triple Threat: HB1314, HB7, and HB863
- Virginia’s Perfect Storm: How One-Party Rule Threatens Life, Liberty, and Law Enforcement
TAKE ACTION
Governor’s Office: (804) 786-2211
Find Your Legislator: https://virginiageneralassembly.gov/
Track HB 110: https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20261/HB110
Read the Conference Report (PDF): HB 110 House Substitute – March 14, 2026
Virginia Christian Alliance: https://vachristian.org
Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
