Blue State City Waves White Flag, Repeals Gun-Free Zone Ordinance

The Winchester, Virginia, city council repealed an ordinance prohibiting firearms in parking garages, resulting in the Tuesday dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a pro-Second Amendment group.

Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) and the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) sued the city in 2024 over a November 2022 ordinance that prohibited carrying firearms on city property. The pro-Second Amendment groups obtained an injunction on June 11, 2024, barring Winchester from enforcing the ordinance.

“Sure, so we almost immediately got an injunction, so that was in place for quite a while, for over a year,” Gun Owners of America Senior Vice President Erich Pratt told the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation. “So for over a year they’ve not been able to enforce that ban and the trial, moved forward with discovery, etc., and in fact, we were getting close to where it was time to depose the Winchester police chief, but before we could get to that, I think, Winchester knew ultimately they saw the handwriting on the wall, and so they repealed their ordinance.”

The city council repealed the ordinance on May 12, according to the order dismissing the case as moot.

“I think the judge did the right thing and that is, to throw it out for because now it’s moot, you know, they’ve repealed their ordinance and, so now there’s no more ban on in the city parking garages,” Pratt told the DCNF.