Panel deadlocks on gun-show bill
The Virginia State Crime Commission yesterday decided it will not recommend legislative passage of a bill that would require people who buy guns at gun shows to undergo mandatory background checks.
The vote was a draw -- 6-6 on the Republican-controlled commission, which is made up of members of the state Senate, House of Delegates, and current and former law enforcement officials. The commission studies law enforcement issues and advises lawmakers but has no binding authority.
Still, legislation that would close the so-called gun-show loophole is headed for another hearing in the General Assembly. The loophole means some buyers at gun shows do not have to undergo mandatory background checks.
State Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, D-Richmond, a member of the commission, said he will propose a bill similar to the measure he introduced last year, which failed to clear the Democrat-controlled Senate Courts of Justice Committee that he chairs.
Yesterday, several dozen friends and members of families of the victims of the April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech shootings showed up at the Patrick Henry Building to witness the discussion. Many were disappointed with the panel's vote, while some supporters of the legislation viewed getting enough votes to tie as a sign of progress.
"I heard things from opponents today that I never heard before," said Joe Samaha, father of Tech victim Reema Samaha. "So disappointment? I say, no. There's hope. At least they're talking about compromise."
Afterward Tech supporters gathered on the lawn near the Capitol to stage a protest "die-in" and urged lawmakers to reconsider.
Michael White, father of slain Tech student Nicole Regina White, criticized the commission for its split vote.
"Indecision is what caused the murder of my child when they waited two hours to close that school," said White, joined by his wife and nearly two dozen friends of their daughter, all wearing black T-shirts, who made the trip to Richmond from Longwood University.
"We can't continue to wait for this to happen," White said. "We have to be proactive, not reactive."
Five of the nine legislators on the commission -- four Republicans and one Democrat -- voted against the measure. The Democrat who voted no was Del. Ward L. Armstrong, D-Henry, whose rural district includes part of Carroll County, which hosts a large gun show.
Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, chairman of the commission, voted in favor of recommending the measure.
Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, vice chairman of the commission and a member of the Courts of Justice committee, voted against the recommendation. But Stolle, a former police officer, signaled that there might be room for compromise on the measure.
He said gun show promoters could provide private sellers at the shows access to a licensed dealer who could do voluntary criminal background checks on people who purchase firearms from private sellers.
Currently, only federally licensed gun dealers are required to do background checks on the people who purchase weapons from them at gun shows.
Contact Jim Nolan at (804) 649-6061 or .
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Reader Reactions
VaGentleman, you CAN transfer a family gun to another family member at any time AND YOU ALWAYS WILL BE ABLE TO, just don’t take them to a gun show and make them buy it from you at a table from amongst a pile of other guns! If you don’t have any better reasons than that to oppose background checks at public events, then I pray for your sanity.
It’s an argument that would make sense only to a gun nut on the fringe of the far right wing: “Cho lied on his background check form and got guns, so let’s allow future mentally ill individuals to buy guns from private sellers without undergoing any background check whatsoever.“ Yeahhhh…don’t think too many sane people are going to see the sense in that. The fact is that if Cho’s record of institutionalization had been forwarded to the VA State Police by the courts, his lying wouldn’t have mattered and the sale would have been stopped (and Gov. Kaine has since fixed that reporting error). Then again, Cho STILL would have been able to buy a gun through a private sale even had he failed at the gun store, with no questions asked and no paperwork.
Oh, and evidence about gun shows being the source of crime guns? For starters, the ATF has found that gun shows are the second leading source of illegally trafficked firearms. The ATF also conducted an investigation between 2002 and 2005 and found that more than 400 firearms sold at Richmond-area gun shows were later recovered in connection with criminal activity.
Kudos to the victims and survivors from VA Tech and the concerned young people that got out there the other day to call for the closing of this inane loophole. I have no doubt that with their courage and determination they will win this fight.
The negative comments at the end about those supporting the Lie-In display both ignorance and hostility. The gun-show loophole is not merely a loophole, but a real gap in Virginia and many other states’ (including Georgia’s) gun codes, as the recent purchase of an assault weapon by Reema Samaha’s brother Omar at a gun show in Virginia clearly demonstrates; the seller, who did not know Omar from Barney Fife or Yassar Arafat, asked for no ID but still sold him this very dangerous weapon without a flinch. How often would something like this have to happen to make a sane person realize that even one time is too many?
Further, trace records—which paranoid Second Amendment idolaters despise and work either to make illegal or impossible to access—clearly demonstrate that states that have not closed this so-called loophole invariably lead the nation (see the report “The Movement of Illegal Guns in America” by the Mayors Against Illegal Guns) in providing crime guns to other states. Georgia, for example, has numerically provided more crime guns to other states than any other, and Virginia is not far behind. This is well-documented evidence, and the correlations between seized crime guns, their point of origin, and states without a law preventing gun sales without background checks are too high to ignore—unless you’re an ideologue, who would rather abet criminals in their activities than demand background checks at gun shows without exception.
Further, states not requiring private dealers at gun shows to subject their buyers to background checks have higher incidences of gun violence and more murders of law enforcement officers than those states that do have this requirement. Second Amendment idolaters can rail all they want about the sanctity of the right to bear arms, but their refusal to do anything to keep firearms out of the hands of people who should never possess them—violent felons, persons with mental-health issues, persons under restraining orders (as for stalking), and even terrorists—indicates quite clearly that “convenience” and a lack of true accountability to the society that nurtures them mean far more to them than does the safety of their fellow citizens, including their own children.
Cho should have been denied the right to buy weapons because of his mental-health issues, and after the shootings, Governor Kaine moved to solve this problem, which should not have existed in the first place. But if Cho had been denied the chance to buy firearms because of this belated action on the Governor’s part, he would have visited a gun show to buy the semiautomatic weapons he wanted. He was fascinated by the shooters at Columbine, who bought some of their weapons at gun shows, and he was wickedly smart enough to know how to circumvent existing laws and to get what he wanted. Our son and many others died or were wounded (not to mention traumatized) as a result of his single-minded pursuit of infamy, and he would not have been stopped by Virginia’s current laws. Those posting tirades in capital letters and subjecting supporters of the Lie-In to vilification and abuse are not defending freedom; they’re making it easier, if not an absolute cinch, for bad guys to obtain firearms for nefarious purposes. And yet they think themselves patriots. Amazing.
Ok how about all you who are for this so called closure, this includes any of the members of the Gang of 32, show us some of the records or crimes that prove this is a problem. Please show us all this crimes that have been commited by private sales at gun shows. Then prove this was a sale at at a gun show. can’t do it because there are no records to show this is a problem. They will keep at it until our CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS are terminated. Over my cold dead body.
Actually, Mr. Cho met this criteria that barred him from purchasing a firearm IF HE ANSWERED TRUTHFULLY ON THE NATIONAL INSTANT BACKGROUND CHECK FORM: (4) Has been adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to a mental institution.
Check it out for yourself: http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/faq2.htm#b5
How did Mr. Cho obtain his guns? Was it a)at a gun show? b) from a private citizen? c) from a dealer? d)from the black market?
Answer - c - from a dealer BY LYING ON THE FEDERAL FORM THAT ASKS THE FOLLOWING QUESTION: Have you ever received psychiatric treatment or been under the care of a mental health professional.
HE LIED AND PEOPLE DIED!
First, if a crimminal wants a gun they steal one or purchase it on the black market. They do not go to gun shows and purchase guns from either a dealer or an individual. Second, this bill would make it impossible for a private citizen to transfer a family gun to another member of their own family WITHOUT A BACKGROUND CHECK. How intrusive is that?!
Let me emphasize this emphatically. THERE IS…NO GUNSHOW…LOOPHOLE!!!!
It is specifically a private sale between two individuals! If they’re at a GUNSHOW, DOGSHOW, ROADSHOW, OR WATCHING SHOWTIME! It does NOT matter!
Private sales between individuals are just that, BETWEEN INDIVIDUALS! Anyone selling a firearm to a stranger without getting some information is asking for trouble, and all the gunowners I know, do NOT sell willy-nilly to ANYONE! Most have a form they create themselves to hold in case the ATF, or other LE agency comes knocking.
If you look at the crime statistics for firearms used in crime purchased from gunshows, it’s microscopic! Criminals have always gotten their weapons illegally, either through theft, or purchasing from unreputable individuals (IE: OTHER CRIMINALS!)
The people who are seeking this “closing of a gunshow loophole” are looking to slippery slope INDIVIDUAL sales by REGULATING THOSE WHO ARE NOT BREAKING THE LAW! You want to stop criminals, and crazies, from committing violence? Arm their victims.
and THAT’S how criminals are able to get guns, duh! If someone is buying a gun at a show and wants to do the right then and be legal about it, they shouldn’t have a problem with a background check. But thank you legislators for keeping it easy for Joe Shmoe Gangster to pack some heat.
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