Virginia Tech-inspired bills yield few gun law changes

RICHMOND

As Andrew Goddard sat by his son's bedside at a hospital near Blacksburg on April 16, he prayed.

If Colin survived after being shot four times by a fellow Virginia Tech student who had failed to receive mental health treatment, Goddard vowed to dedicate himself to making sure no other father would have to live his nightmare.

Nearly a year later, as the first General Assembly session after the Virginia Tech shootings winds down, Goddard - whose son survived his injuries - has spent a lot of time at the Capitol.

"I honestly thought they would be looking for things to do, based on the recommendations of the Virginia Tech panel," Goddard said.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine appointed the Virginia Tech Review Panel to investigate the shootings. The panel made 21 findings and 70 recommendations - many related to mental health reform and campus safety.

In response to the nation's worst campus tragedy, Virginia legislators embraced the first significant overhaul in the state's mental health system in many years but did little to change gun laws in the commonwealth.

The mental health bills address shortcomings in the system highlighted by Seung-Hui Cho, who fatally shot 32 people at Virginia Tech before killing himself. Two years before the slayings, a court ordered Cho to receive outpatient treatment after he was judged a danger to himself. He did not receive the treatment.

"This was by far the largest and most expensive and most challenging of all the recommendations that were made," Kaine said. "They're systemic, they're statewide, and they really cost."

The overhaul also resonated deeply with the Tech victim s' families, Kaine said.

"This was the issue the families felt strongest about,"

Kaine said. "This was the one we had to do."

"We knew from the beginning that they were going to address mental health" and other noncontroversial issues such as privacy laws and campus security, said Lu Ann McNabb, a friend of the family of Reema Samaha, who was killed by Cho.

She and Goddard said they were both pleased with progress made during the session in those areas.

Gun control, however, was another matter.

"Guns, we felt, were very controversial, so that's why we focused on that," she said.

McNabb and Goddard, who attended many General Assembly meetings and hearings this year, tracked the progress of about 60 bills.

Gun legislation this session ranged from efforts to close the so-called "gun show loophole" to efforts to make sure concealed-weapon-permit holders could bring their handguns onto public college and university campuses.

Both McNabb and Goddard were disappointed that efforts to change the gun-show law failed.

The Virginia Tech panel had recommended changing the law, so people buying firearms from private dealers at gun shows would have to undergo background checks.

Del. Brian Moran, D-Alexandria, said the push to make that change never gained enough momentum.

"It failed on a party-line vote, and that's unfortunate," he said.

But opponents to the legislation had pointed out that Cho did not buy the two handguns used in the attack at a gun show.

House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, who opposed changing the gun laws, said lawmakers addressed areas that applied directly to what happened in Blacksburg.

"There wasn't anything related to our gun laws that would have affected Virginia Tech," Griffith said. "Where the system might have made a difference was mental health, was security, not acquisition of firearms."

Griffith said he knew many people were passionate about gun control after the tragedy, but he felt their argument wasn't valid.

"You had people who truly believed in their hearts there was a connection," Griffith said. "Step back and you can see there is no connection."

Other lawmakers believe permitting guns on campus would make colleges and universities safer. Del. C. Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, said the recent rash of incidents on college campuses demonstrates that responsible gun owners should have the right to carry concealed weapons on college campuses to protect themselves.

He sponsored legislation in 2006 and again this session that would have prohibited a state entity such as a public university from banning someone carrying a firearm if he or she had a valid concealed-handgun permit.

Del. Bob Marshall, R-Prince William, introduced a bill to allow full-time faculty with concealed-weapon permits to take their handguns onto campus at public universities and colleges in Virginia.

Both proposals were left in a House committee.

Gilbert, who also sponsored the mental health reform legislation, said he doesn't think schools have the right to ban firearms on campus.

"I have never said 'I told you so' about what happened at Virginia Tech," Gilbert said. "I never said if students and professors could carry on campus it would have made a difference."

Going forward, McNabb and Goddard said they plan to continue educating the public about Virginia's gun laws and will return to the General Assembly next year.

Goddard plans to keep lobbying for gun control and additional mental health legislation.

"There's a lot of unfinished work that still needs to be looked at," Goddard said.

Jen McCaffery, (757) 446-2627, jen.mccaffery@pilotonline.com

Richard Quinn, (757) 222-5119, richard.quinn@pilotonline.com