The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
Legislation to require criminal background checks for individuals before they buy firearms from private dealers at gun shows passed a significant hurdle Monday with the help of two local senators.
The bill, SB1257, advanced out of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee on an 8-7 vote. It still must pass the full Senate and the House of Delegates before the measure could become law.
The former is a possibility; the latter seems highly unlikely because of strong opposition to limiting gun rights.
Despite those odds, supporters of closing the so-called gun show loophole, including relatives of people killed or injured during the April 2007 shootings at Virginia Tech, rejoiced after Monday's vote.
"That was obviously history-making," said Andrew Goddard of Henrico County. Goddard's son, Colin, was shot multiple times during Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho's rampage, which claimed 32 lives before Cho killed himself.
The Senate committee has not supported such bills. The outcome was different this time because two Republicans who voted to kill the bill last year switched sides.
State Sens. Frederick Quayle, R-Suffolk, and Thomas Norment, R-James City County, said they were swayed by the impassioned appeals of advocates, not because they believe firearms purchased from private dealers at gun shows end up in the hands of criminals.
"So many of the citizens have voiced an outcry over the way that they perceive it that I've just come to the conclusion that it is an issue in the minds of so many Virginians, so let's just close the loophole," Norment said.
Quayle said he felt his vote Monday was a continuation of the mental health laws passed last year.
"It's all part of the Virginia Tech tragedy," Quayle said afterward.
Current state law requires licensed gun dealers to conduct a background check on customers. Private sellers are not bound by that law.
The bill advanced Monday after being amended by Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, to exempt from background checks individuals with valid concealed weapons permits, sales outside of gun shows and antique firearms transactions.
The issue of background checks has been the object of much attention in recent years. Scrutiny of state gun laws reached a crescendo last year after the Tech shootings. Yet even the memory of 32 lives lost at Tech and the strong support from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine were n't enough to pass the bill last year.
"It's not over," said Joe Samaha, whose daughter Reema was killed in the Tech shootings, "but it's an important step."
Julian Walker, (804) 697-1564, julian.walker@pilotonline.com
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Work on the budget, not attempted gun control.
Gov. Kaine has not figured out that guns do not kill people, people kill people. The law that would require a background check inside the gun show would not require a background check in the gun show parking lot. Stupid is stupid.
Gun Loophole
Oh, yeah...man, I really feel good. Now those mean old criminals can't buy guns (wink, wink, nudge, grin). Only good God fearing law abiding citizens will have guns....wow (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, grin).
1 thing to say -
Kennesaw Ga, where all head of households are REQUIRED to carry a gun, unless they feel strongly against or there is some other good reason.
They have one of the LOWEST violent crime rates in the country.
On May 1, 1982 the city passed an ordinance [Sec 34-1a] requiring every head of household to maintain a firearm together with ammunition.
Kennesaw's law was amended in 1983 to exempt those who conscientiously object to owning a firearm, convicted felons, those who cannot afford a firearm, and those with a mental or physical disability that would prevent them from owning a firearm. It mentions no penalty for its violation. According to the Kennesaw Historical Society, no one has ever been charged under the ordinance
oops
Should read, "unless he's at a show" not "only if he's"
Sen. Creigh Deeds Amendment makes this ludicrous
Saying it's okay for an individual to sell a gun to someone without a background check only if he's at a gun show at the time is ridiculous. This way we end up with, "Bob, meet in the alley out back in 10 minutes and we can do the transaction without having to worry about the background check". Doesn't sound like closing a loophole to me.
evils of common sense
If more people would legally purchase guns, then there would be more people out there able to kill the idiots on rampages. Oh, that's right, we can't have guns in certain areas because apparently legal gun owners have the potential to turn into gun crazed murderers just by walking into a school, or government bldg. We will never be truly safe so long as we let the government protect us and our loved ones. If not guns, some nut shows up with a samurai sword and starts slicing in a crowd, or a knife, or a club. There was a time in America where common sense was allowed to be applied to the general public, now we aren't smart enough to keep ourselves safe.
Dumb Law
This is just another feel good law and will not stop the thugs of the world from stealing guns from the homes they rob or obtaining cheap handguns brought in from South America by drug runners. The criminals of the world will not get a permit or have a background check. This just adds another hurdle for the law abiding American to jump through.
BIG BROTHER KNOWS WHAT'S RIGHT FOR YOU!!!BEWARE
This law makes no sense at
This law makes no sense at any level except the feel good dogooder level. criminals will get guns and will circumvent the law to do so. I am a gun guy, and would be happy to see any law that could somehow effectively solve the crime problems. What I see in this case is a simple chiseling away at my right to sell my property. Next you'll be required to sell your car at a dealership, used mower at a lawn and garden shop. I have never sold a gun at a gun show and likely never will. If the state really wanted to do something perhaps allowing citizens to call in and get an approval number. I think many people who sold guns at shows would voluntarily require the approval, by and large gun owners are a responsible group. The criminals aren't, and will gladly break into your home and look for your guns. This must be more about taxes than safety because it makes 0 sense. If guns were so easy to get why are there so many attempted break ins at gun shops?
There's a reason for Virginians viewing guns like we do.
Like it's already been said, the VT shootings and this are completely unrelated. When the shootings happened, a small group suddenly jumped up with "This is the ammo (haha. a pun) we need to change the gun laws!". It didn't work, and the rest of the country wasn't surprised since here, in Virginia, we tend to keep the vows of the forefathers of this country securing our right to bear arms. No, we don't have any impending militia needs, but with that logic, the Minutemen never would have been prepared to fight the British. Half of the Civil War battles, not to mention a lot of the early wars of the 1800s would have been lopsided without the private citizen and the gun he brought from home. The UK's strict gun laws only helped their crime rate raise anyway.
did pass background check
Hey, Now Hear This, it's not that Cho would have passed a background check, he DID pass a background check and he DID buy his guns from a dealer. This feel-good (to some quarters) legislation would not have prevented Cho's rampage. Liberals like to accuse Bush of erroneously linking Iraq with 9/11 but have no shame linking the Va. Tech tragedy with the so-called gun show loophole.
Pencils cause misspelled words like spoons made Rosie O'Donnell fat - she, of course, being a typical Hollywood hypocrite who is vehemently against guns but whose children's bodyguards carry concealed weapons. I guess her kids' lives are more valuable than mine.