RICHMOND-- A House committee yesterday killed legislation to close the "gun show loophole," despite emotional testimony from the families of victims of the Virginia Tech shooting.
On a party-line, 13-9 vote, the House Militia, Police and Public Safety committee voted down the bill, which would have required private sellers of guns to do background checks on their buyers.
A Senate version of the bill is due for a committee hearing Monday.
Currently law requires federally licensed firearms dealers to do background checks on anyone who buys a gun from them--the checks typically take just minutes. But gun sellers who aren't dealers--who sell under a certain amount of guns--can sell guns at gun shows without doing background checks on the people they sell to.
That means people who would fail a background check--felons, the mentally ill, people who have protective orders against them--can go to private sellers at gun shows and buy a gun.
Gov. Tim Kaine is pushing to close that loophole this year in the wake of the shootings last April at Virginia Tech.
The shooter, Seung Hui-Cho, did not purchase his guns at a gun show, but Kaine and other backers of the measure say he could have, and that this is a way to help prevent future such tragedies from happening.
Those arguments, however, did not sway the committee, which heard the bill yesterday morning after it was added to the docket late on Thursday--a move that supporters of the bill said they felt was intended to minimize their ability to testify.
Several families of Virginia Tech victims did manage to make it to Richmond on short notice, to talk passionately about why they want the bill passed.
"I really cannot wrap my brain around a plausible reason you could give me why you would not support this bill," said Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily was wounded. "We can wait two hours at the DMV to get a driver's license and every single one of us does it. We can wait five minutes for a background check. If you can save just one life with these bills, it is worth it."
Joe Samaha, whose daughter Reema was killed, said if lawmakers leave the loophole open, "then you have not done your best" to protect Virginians.
He criticized opponents of the bill who have said the background check is an "inconvenience" and a "nuisance."
"Let me tell you about the nuisance of calling Reema on her cell phone multiple times (the day of the shooting) only to get no answer," Samaha said.
The Virginia State Police back the bill. Col. Steve Flaherty said police estimate that 22 percent to 35 percent of people at gun shows are not licensed dealers, but are private sellers. He stressed that the bill isn't intended to interfere with people trading guns with friends, nor does it apply to people selling a gun privately in any setting except a gun show.
Opponents of the bill argued that it does nothing to fix the issues brought out by the Tech shootings--such as the loophole, since closed, that allowed a mentally ill Cho to still pass a background check.
They also said forcing private gun sellers to do background checks on their buyers would be an infringement of the government into private transactions.
Philip Van Cleave, of the gun-rights group Virginia Citizens Defense League, said while gun shows had nothing to do with the Tech tragedy, people view it as an opportunity "to open up the toy box" to police all private firearms transactions.
"This would be just the first step," Van Cleave said. "The next thing would be all private sales we don't see the need for this."
Tom Evans, a lobbyist who represents some gun shows and helps promote gun shows, said gun shows are "visible scapegoats" but that the perception that criminals buy their guns there is off-base.
He spoke of watching people bring in used, older guns --some from World War I and II--and said those are not typically the kinds of guns that criminals buy.
Lawmakers on the committee held a heated, and confusing, argument over the parliamentary procedures by which they were going to vote on the bill, with Democrats arguing in favor of holding off on a vote until next week.
But in the end, the vote was taken and the bills killed, to the chagrin of the Tech victims' families.
"I don't know why these people think they're representing their constituents," said Andrew Goddard, whose son was injured in the shooting. "They represent the NRA and people who pay them money."
That isn't the end of the matter; the Senate has its own version of the bill, and that's the one Kaine is pushing.
Kaine told reporters yesterday that he always expected passage of the bill in the House to be "a challenge."
He's hoping that the Senate version will pass and thereby put pressure on the House to support it as well.
"With that momentum we could create some additional leverage to get this thing passed," Kaine said. "If it's ever going to happen, this is the year to make it happen."
Kaine dismissed the argument that the gun-show loophole has nothing to do with the Tech shooting.
"These gun shows provide a very easy and public means" for criminals to get guns, he said. "There are those who apparently think it's fine for a felon to have a gun. They usually won't stand up and say that, because they'd be laughed out of the room, but that's apparently what they believe."
Some of the Tech victims' families will join other gun-control advocates in a lobbying effort at the General Assembly on Monday, which is when the Senate Courts of Justice Committee is due to take up the Senate version of this bill. The committee chairman, Sen. Henry Marsh, is also the bill's sponsor.
Chelyen Davis: 804/782-9362|
Campaign contributions from pro-gun interests to eight of the 13 Republicans who voted to kill legislation that would require unlicensed sellers to run criminal background checks on buyers at Virginia gun shows:
NRA POLITICAL VICTORY FUND:
$1,000 H. Morgan Griffith of Salem.
$750 Bill Carrico $500 L. Scott Lingamfelter, Prince William. $250 Donald Merricks, ONLINE: VPAP: vpap.org SBE: sbe.virginia.gov/cms/ --Virginia Public Access Project data compiled from campaign finance reports filed Jan. 15 with the State Board of Elections. |