SB 827, patroned by Sen. Jeannemarie Devolites Davis (R-34), is designed to close the loophole on gun show gun sales. According to The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence:
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817 Virginians died from gun violence in 2004. 54 of them were 18 years or younger.
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In 2004, 66 gun shows were held in Virginia. 15,326 gun transactions by licensed sellers occurred at these shows.
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Between 22 and 35% of gun show vendors are unlicensed sellers.
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States that do not require gun show background checks, like Virginia, are more likely to export crime guns to other states.
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In 2005, background checks prevented 2,668 illegal gun transactions to criminals and other prohibited purchasers in Virginia (a 13% increase over the previous year).
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88% of all Virginians (and 84% of all gun owners) support requiring criminal background checks on all sales at gun shows.
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According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive(ATF), gun shows are a major source of criminal activity in Virginia.
I’ve mentioned previously that my younger brother was murdered by a convicted felon who acquired a gun. I don’t have any idea whether he got the gun at a show, but anything that helps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals is a good thing.
The bill is currently in the Courts of Justice Committee. Contact committee members, especially chairman Sen. Ken Stolle (R-8), and ask them to vote YES on this bill.
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
IRT: ” but anything that helps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals is a good thing.”
No … not “anything”. I strongly disagree with such thinking.
Keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens is not “a good thing”. But for many Liberals banning all guns falls within the scope of “anything that helps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.”
We have a right to own guns to protect ourselves.
Just as we have a right to free speech.
The right of free speech leads to killing too, but I don’t hear too many people advocating taking that right away because some people abuse it – and as a result, some innocent people die.
We citizens need to have guns to help protect the rest of ourselves – and our rights.
Vivian, I don’t know how old your younger broyther was – but had he (if he was old enough) a gun, or if one of your family members near by had been armed, they might have stopped his killing.
Now that would have been “a good thing” too.
My younger brother David – aged 2 and a half – was killed by a driver that entered our yard and ran him over on Thanksgiving day. My family was hosting the family dinner. The driver was turning around and he claiming that he did not see David. David hung onto life for 5 days and died from then bleeding in his skull. My family went through a week of hell – waiting at the hospital.
It was a horrible personal trauma, but I don’t advocate making it harder for everyone to buy a car.
Reid Greenmun misses the point in his generic “all gun control is evil” response. The point is, should unlicensed sellers be able to sell lethal weapons to strangers without any requirement that minimal steps be taken to assure that the strangers are not criminals instead of law-abiding citizens? Is Reid Greenmun saying that there should be no effort to distinguish between criminals and law-abiding citizens in gun sales?
Virginia has long had a reputation as a place for “straw man” purchases of guns which are then immediately resold to criminals in DC and up and down the East Coast. It was even worse before they enacted the one gun a month restriction. Tell me, what law abiding citizen needs to purchase more than 12 guns a year? But that legislation was opposed by anti-gun control forces too.
I’m fine with the idea of law-abiding citizens owning weapons. I’ve even decided that the carry law turned out not to be such a bad thing as I have not heard of it resulting in any additional gun violence. However, we need to acknowledge that guns are lethal instruments, inherently dangerous, and for our society to remain as safe as possible we must exert sensible control over the sale and purchase of such instruments.
Oh, and as for the “if only your brother had had a gun on him” argument, in the past year in the Washington area there’ve been at least four instances of armed off-duty law enforcement officers who were shot, and in at least two cases killed, in robberies by thugs who didn’t even know they were cops. When someone is up to no good, and he’s armed, generally he’s not going to give his victim a chance to draw his own weapon so they can have an old-fashioned shoot out. Most cases of gun violence take place in a matter of seconds.
Reid, you can’t see the forest for the trees. I said nothing about taking guns away from law-abiding citizens. As so many Republicans said about wire-tapping, if you have nothing to hide, why worry about a background check?
There is no reason for unlicensed sellers of guns to operate this way. No one is infringing upon the right to own guns. Would you rather there be NO background checks and those 2,668 illegal transactions had occurred?
Vivian, I do see the forest through the trees – that was the very point I was making.
Please re-read my first post; I wrote:
Keep guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens is not “a good thing”. But for many Liberals banning all guns falls within the scope of “anything that helps to keep guns out of the hands of criminals.”
You made a sweeping statement that “anything” that keeps guns out of the hands of criminals is a good thing.
I stand by my post – No, it is not.
Do you disagree that banning all guns, forcing the firms that make them out of businesses, and collecting all guns and destroying them are all within the scope of “anything” that people propose under the guise of keeping guns out of the hands of criminals?
Background checks at gun shows – the problem I have with this is that criminals will ignore any LAW that is passed.
A far wiser action is to support hiring more police to catch criminals and approving more funding to expedite background checks.
Building more prisons to take criminals off the streets – that is actually doing something meaninful, assuming the Liberal courts will actually send these criminals to jail.
Should gun sellers at gun shows conduct background checks? Yes, that would be a good thing.
But there needs to be a easy and fast process avaialble to make this check as fast and simple as the check done when we use our cridit card at a POS terminal.
Easy access to guns for law abiding citizens may or may not be “a good thing” – but it is our Constitutional right.
Standing up to defend our Constitutional rights is a “good thing” – or do you disagree?
Reid, please point out any “liberal” of any stature or relevance to political discourse that advocates “banning all guns.”
Well?
It’s so easy to win an argument when you’re arguing with your imagination, isn’t it?
everyone let us be serious, if you want a gun that bad i am sure you can find one in some area’s of norfolk, and no background check with that, for the right price.
I am not an knee jerk anti-gun person. In fact I like shooting guns. I like my guns. I can’t remember ever not having one in the home. And I would not want that right taken from me for various reasons- some constitutional, some personal.
However, I would have to agree that any action/law taken, that keeps guns out of the hands of criminals who may not lawfully possess them, is good law.
Second Amendment rights do not apply to criminals.
Where does she get this information that
between 22 and 35% of gun show vendors are unlicensed sellers
Is she just pulling this crap out of thin air…or is she quoting some
erroneous information from the BRADY bunch babies
The truth is that most of these so-called unlicensed vendors are just selling Army Navy surplus boots and clothing…why because I go to these shows and I have seen them.
This number is clearly exaggerated… because most people who read this and don’t go to gun shows will believe what someone (clearly with a bias) will tell them.
The facts are that Federal Law requires that EVERY retailer that sells guns be licensed…
People…stand up to these whiny little babies….
Don’t let them get away with spewing this deadly vomit and contaminate the rest of society…to those who haven’t really given the issue a second thought…
If we allow this kind of venom to spill over into the average person’s life…they will start believing that guns really get up off the table and shoot all by themselves.
They are chipping away at society, one person at a time…
Fight back…question there so-called facts…question where did they get this info
You will find that 95% of these anti-gunners have NEVER been to a gunshow, and all of them just want REASONABLE gun laws.
For Christ’s sake, we already have over 25,000 so-called reasonable gun laws…
we don’t need any more
It’s just like the illegal immigration issue…
If our government would just start to enforce what is already law…we wouldn’t need ANY MORE LAWS