Back to an ugly gunrunning future

Twenty years ago, Virginia's lax regulation of firearms earned the commonwealth the distinction of being the No. 1 source of guns illegally trafficked to other states.

In 1993, Republican and Democratic lawmakers responded by coming together to approve a law that limited handgun purchases to one per month. The law allowed Virginians who wanted to purchase multiple guns to apply for a waiver.

Two years later, the Virginia State Crime Commission conducted a study of the measure's impact on public safety and the illegal flow of firearms to other states. Its findings were clear.

Virginia dropped from first to eighth on the list of states used by illegal gun traffickers. The chances of a gun purchased in Virginia being recovered in a criminal investigation dropped 36 percent nationwide, 66 percent along the northeast corridor and more than 70 percent in New York and Massachusetts. Meanwhile, State Police reported 92 percent of Virginians who applied for a waiver received one.

"Virginia's one-gun-a-month statute... has had its intended effect of reducing Virginia's status as a source for state gun trafficking," the report concluded. "The imposition of the law does not appear to create an onerous burden for law-abiding gun purchasers who apply for a multiple handgun purchase waiver."

Since then, gun-rights advocates have persisted in their effort to undermine a prudent, bipartisan solution. They've posted successes. In 2004, lawmakers approved a bill allowing concealed-carry permit holders to buy multiple handguns. It also lifted the restriction on private sales.

Today, some legislators, led by gun-rights advocates and apparently unencumbered by memory, are pushing to end the restriction altogether.

"One-gun-a-month is no longer needed," Del. Scott Lingamfelter said recently. "It has been obviated by actions of this body over the last 20 years."

His assessment of the General Assembly's actions may be correct, but his solution is not. If anything, lawmakers' success in diluting the one-gun-a-month restriction suggests a need to return to the initial version of the law.

Several studies in recent years show Virginia climbing back among the favorite sources of gunrunners.

In December, federal officials touted the arrest of 10 Virginia men suspected of operating a gun and drug ring out of Manassas and Fairfax County. The arrests brought the total to more than 60 over three years. A few months earlier, a New Jersey man and two Virginia men pleaded guilty to running guns from Virginia's Eastern Shore to Trenton. Authorities linked two fatal shootings there, including the drive-by killing of a 13-year-old girl, to weapons purchased in Virginia.

The General Assembly in the past decade has made it easier for gunrunners to operate in Virginia. It has eroded the gains made possible by a law that prevented weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

The latest push ensures that the progress made over the past 20 years is undone. 1992, here we come.