This bill doesn't ban a single firearm. It builds the taxpayer-funded infrastructure to research, recommend, and push for gun control forever. Here's the blueprint.
SB364 takes a small, 6-person office inside the Department of Criminal Justice Services and mandates it become a statewide coordinating hub for "firearm violence intervention and prevention." Here are the four core functions it creates:
Designates the Office of Safer Communities as the "primary resource" for research, best practices, and strategies for firearm violence intervention programs across all of Virginia.
Mandates the Office evaluate all state-funded and community-based violence intervention programs and policies, giving it oversight power over local organizations.
Directs the Office to apply for and accept federal grants, creating a funnel for federal money into Virginia's gun control infrastructure.
Requires the Office to provide technical assistance to localities and community organizations in establishing firearm violence intervention programs statewide.
Follow the circuit. SB364 creates a self-sustaining loop: a state office that researches "firearm violence," produces recommendations for more gun control, then uses those recommendations to justify its own expansion and funding.
It's called the "Center for Firearm Violence Intervention and Prevention" — not the "Center for Violence Prevention." They're not targeting violence. They're targeting firearms. Approximately half of violent crimes don't involve a firearm at all, but this office will ignore all of them.
The stakeholder workgroups include gun-control advocates but specifically exclude gun-rights organizations. When you build a policy body and only invite one side of the debate, you're not doing research — you're building a propaganda machine. As VCDL warned: the workgroup will "undoubtedly blame guns and not criminals for violence."
Both VCDL and Gun Owners of America identified SB364 for what it is. VCDL called it "a jobs program for gun-controllers." GOA said it "creates new gun control agencies and workgroups under the guise of violence prevention." Virginia taxpayers will fund a permanent bureaucracy whose mission is to justify future restrictions on lawful gun ownership.
The effective date is July 1, 2027 — over a year away. That gives the bureaucracy time to hire staff, build out programs, and entrench itself before anyone sees what it actually produces. By the time the first "recommendations" come out, it'll be too late to defund it. The DCJS restructuring plan is due November 1, 2026 — the expansion starts before the bill even takes full effect.
SB364 passed alongside a historic slate of gun control legislation. It creates the administrative backbone to support all of these:
SB364 doesn't ban your guns. It builds the permanent state-funded machine that will recommend banning your guns — year after year, report after report, forever.