Williams: Columbine, Tech and Virginia’s lax gun laws
The survivors of two schools linked by violence 1,500 miles and eight years apart will join hands in commemoration and activism.
Lori Haas, whose daughter survived the Virginia Tech massacre two years ago today, is in Blacksburg to attend the second-anniversary commemoration of the shoot ings and take part in a student "lie-in" to protest Virginia's lax gun laws.
Today, she'll join other families connected by the tragedy to make ribbons for Columbine High School families. Haas and several other family members of Tech victims will take those ribbons to Denver for another "lie-in" on Monday, the 10th anniversary of the Columbine shootings.
To her knowledge, this is the first time the families of Tech and Columbine have connected.
The events of April 16, 2007, transformed Haas, a Henrico County mother of three, into a gun-safety activist.
"I'm feeling optimistic and a little energized with the attention the issue is finally getting," said Haas, my former parochial-school classmate, whose daughter Emily was wounded in the shooting rampage by Seung-Hui Cho that killed 32 people and wounded numerous others.
"I am absolutely convinced that legislation that would keep guns out of the hands of criminals, the mentally ill and domestic abusers does not in any way infringe on a law-abiding citizen's right to own a gun," she said. "The Second Amendment does not guarantee the right to sell your gun to anybody you please."
Again this year, Haas witnessed the rejection of legislation to close the loophole in Virginia law that allows unlicensed gun-show dealers to sell weapons to buyers without background checks.
Haas says Senate Minority Leader Emeritus Walter A. Stosch, R-Henrico, who represents her and the families of three other Tech victims -- "three injured and one deceased" -- voted against closing the loophole this session after previously supporting a similar bill. She blames election-year politics for his change of heart.
But if Haas and other Tech families have been moved to activism, ardent defenders of gun rights remain unmoved.
"You are an idiot! Your logic is so skewed -- you had better check yourself into a mental ward," a reader wrote in response to my recent column expressing fear at the acceleration of weapons sales in Virginia and across the country.
The e-mail did not reassure me about the state of mind of the more aggressive defenders of the Second Amendment.
It's heartening to see an industry doing well in this flatlining economy. But the explosion of firearms sales is unsettling.
Green Top Sporting Goods, a Hanover County institution, must feel unsettled. After owning the north-of-town gun turf, it has witnessed encroaching competition from Gander Mountain Co., Dick's Sporting Goods and the mammoth Bass Pro Shops.
If Green Top's rezoning request is approved, let's hope it builds a more secure facility than the one that was robbed of 34 handguns last June.
Still, you have to wonder if so many gun merchants within a few miles doesn't amount to overkill.
"GUNS DON'T KILL PEOPLE, PEOPLE DO!!!!!" another reader wrote. But if you buy that, you must believe that Americans are the most violent and depraved people on the planet.
I prefer to believe too many guns are in the wrong hands. How many Columbines and Virginia Techs will we have to endure as evidence?
Contact Michael Paul Williams at (804) 649-6815 or
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Reader Reactions
Michael,
For a guy who writes for a living you are a little sloppy with your language. Greentop was not robbed it was burglarized. You imply that it was somehow Greentop’s fault that they were the victims of that crime. This blame the victim mentality is both shocking and hypocritical.
Va Tech was a failure of the mental health system.
Cho’s right to privacy trumped society’s right to safety.
If respect your 1st amendment right to publish, please be a little more considerate of my 2nd amendment right to keep and bear arms
As a gun owner and NRA member - all honest citizens want to keep guns out of the hands of the criminal and mentally deranged, but closing the gun show “loop-hole” will do little to nothing. Very few sellers at gun shows are non-dealers. It’s easier and safer to sell on consignment thru a dealer/broker. Few gun owners will sell a firearm to someone they don’t know. A bill formed to set up a call check for use by non-dealers at gun shows could be done. The devil would be in the details and paperwork but it could be worked out. People could still sell to friends and family away from the show. Gun owners just don’t want a system that will be used to harass them or used to confiscate their firearms as other states have done. Heres another idea, Federal firearms licenses were once more easily obtained and less costly. Many collectors and hobbyists had them. If everyone who sells and buys guns had one then all all sales would be background checked! Make FFLs cheap and obtainable to all honest citizens like a drivers license. All firearms bought and sold in the entire USA would be background checked. The ATF would enlarge and get a ton of money, gun owners would get their freedom and the gun control lobby could sleep at night knowing everyone was licensed, legal,sane and background checked. Everyone goes home happy.
I’d like to reply to the well-used statement “If only one of the Tech students had been armed then the shooter might have left the planet before killing so many others.“
Where is it shown that nobody DID have a gun there, that day? There are thousands of people on that campus. It is entirely possible that at least one person in the immediate vicinity may’ve had one. Its possible and even likely. Its one thing for a person to pack heat—its another for them to have the gumption to use it.
MPW, the issue of “too many guns” rears it’s ugly head again and we already knew which side of aisle you are on.
Instead of more regulations and obscure laws on the transfer of firearms why not this. If you use a firearm in the commission of a felony there is a 10 year, no probation, no parole sentence added to whatever the sentence for the felony. If you use a stolen firearm in the commission of a felony that sentence is increased to 15 years.
Some people want to restrict the sale of firearms by private owners. Let me offer this. When you sell a motor vehicle are you required to determine if the buyer has a history if DUI convictions, has a valid license or is eligible for insurance? What if you sell a high powered car or truck to a habitual offender and they get drunk, go tooling down the road and hits a bus
killing and injuring several people should the person selling the vehicle be held liable? Of course not. But, there will be some people who will decry that the seller should have done checks to prevent the sale.
Since this issue is going to rear it’s head every April consider this. If only one of the Tech students had been armed then the shooter might have left the planet before killing so many others.
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