This story was reported and written by our media partner the Virginia Mercury.
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones joined more than two dozen local officials, clergy members and lawmakers in Petersburg Tuesday to discuss gun violence prevention as Virginia’s new assault weapons ban — barely a week old — remains tied up in a series of legal challenges that have essentially stalled enforcement across the commonwealth.
The one-hour roundtable at Good Shepherd Baptist Church came as several firearms restrictions signed into law earlier this year by Gov. Abigail Spanberger and in effect since July 1 remain tangled in overlapping state and federal court fights, setting up what could become a lengthy legal battle over one of the most sweeping gun-control measures ever approved in Virginia…