Carrying without a permit, a gun found in a car, possession after a felony. Many gun cases turn on the stop and the search.
Gun charges in Virginia run from a misdemeanor to a serious felony. The same gun can lead to very different charges, depending on where it was, who it belonged to, and your record.
Marcus Wray leads our gun cases. Many of them begin at a traffic stop, which he knows well from six years as a prosecutor. He looks first at why you were stopped, how the gun was found, and whether the search followed the rules.
Most gun charges ask one of three questions. Were you allowed to have the gun? Were you allowed to carry it the way you did, in the place you did? Was it shown or used in a way the law forbids?
Some people may not have a gun at all, for example after a felony conviction or while certain court orders are in place. For them, simply having one can be a crime, even if it was never fired or shown to anyone.
Having a gun does not always mean holding it. The state may say a gun in your car or your home was yours. It still has to prove you knew it was there and could control it.
Every case is different. The real range for you depends on the exact charge and your record. General information, not legal advice for your situation.
General information, not legal advice for your situation.
We can't promise how your case will end. We can promise to check every one of these, explain what we find, and let you make the call.
Yes, you can be charged. But the state still has to prove you knew the gun was there and could control it. Who owns the car, who else rode in it, and where the gun was found all matter.
Maybe. Police usually hold a gun while the case is open. Whether it comes back depends on how the case ends and whether you are allowed to own one. We raise it at the right time.
We handle state cases. If agents say your case is federal, call us anyway. We will look at where things stand and connect you with federal defense lawyers we trust.
The situation. A stop for an expired registration turned into a pat-down that found a handgun in a jacket pocket.
Our work. We argued the officer had no real reason to believe our client was armed. The judge agreed.
Evidence suppressed, charge dismissed
These are example outcomes written for this demo website. They are not real cases. Every case depends on its own facts, and a past result does not guarantee or predict a similar result in any future case.
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