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Category: Virginia News

■ 26 March 2009 | 11:53 AM

Hollywood vigilante pic mocks Virginia gun law

A reference to Virginia’s much ballyhooed gun show loophole rule has popped up in an unusual place: a motion picture about an armed vigilante who metes out his own brand of justice.

The comment is part of the dialogue in Punisher: War Zone, a 2008 film based on the Marvel Comics character that was released on DVD last week.

While discussing weapons with his supplier, Linus “Microchip” Lieberman (actor Wayne Knight, perhaps best known for his portrayal of the Newman character on the popular 1990s sitcom Seinfeld), Punisher (played by British actor Ray Stevenson) asks about how the guns were acquired.

His supplier responds that it is gun show season in Virginia, and quips “no background check, no problem.”

The so-called gun show loophole refers to a provision in state law requiring licensed dealers to perform criminal background checks on potential buyers before selling them a gun; that standard does not apply to sales between private individuals.

Attempts to change the law – they intensified after the April 2007 shooting massacre at Virginia Tech – to require background checks on individuals who purchase guns from dealers or private sellers at gun shows have repeatedly failed in the General Assembly.

Punisher is a long-running comic book series about Frank Castle, a former military operative who becomes an underground anti-hero after his family is murdered by criminals. The irony is that Punisher uses an array of firearms, presumably obtained illegally, to slaughter violent scofflaws.

-- Julian Walker

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By the way

Submitted by Sailorcurt on Fri, 03/27/2009 at 8:29 am.

"The irony is that Punisher uses an array of firearms, presumably obtained illegally, to slaughter violent scofflaws. "

I believe the word you were looking for there was "hypocrisy", not "irony".

Your heroes in Hollywood make obscene amounts of money with movies that glorify and exploit violence and (in this case) vigilantism...and then self-righteously preach to us about our "lax" gun laws? Give me a break.

Virginia's "gun show loophole"?

Submitted by Sailorcurt on Fri, 03/27/2009 at 8:22 am.

The law was written specifically to protect the privacy and property rights of gun owners. Freedom is not a loophole. The law applies everywhere equally, not just at gun shows. Therefore the inapt term "gun show loophole" is doubly inaccurate.

There are only four states in the US that DO require background checks on private sales and five more that require them on handguns only.

Virginia is hardly unique in this respect as you imply and is, in fact, very much in the majority. Your implications are nothing more than bald-faced lies.

But thanks for letting me know that "Punisher" is not a movie I want to see. I prefer my flicks to be as propaganda free as possible.