Twisting Words to Make a Point

Virginia Tech shooting survivor and gun control advocate Colin Goddard has an Op/Ed on CNN's web site calling for colleges to remain self-defense free zones.  To his credit, Goddard begins the piece by listing the main failures in the system that allowed Virginia Tech to happen - Tech failed to notify students of the original shootings earlier that morning (previously cited by USDOE as a failure on Tech's part), weaknesses in the mental health system in addressing Cho's problems, and the courts, who failed to appropriately note a judge's ruling that could have prevented Cho from purchasing his firearms.  But, he eventually gets around to what he and his employers at the Brady Campaign view as the real culprit in the mass shooting, and indeed most mass shootings - the lack of background checks on private firearm sales, especially those at gun shows.

Goddard finishes his OP/Ed by pulling a 12 year-old quote from Wayne LaPierre out of context to make his point - that if the head of the NRA says there should be zero-tolarance for guns at schools, then carry on college and university campuses is a bad idea.

The head of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, said it well after the Columbine tragedy in 1999: "We believe in absolutely gun-free, zero-tolerance, totally safe schools. That means no guns in America's schools, period ... with the rare exception of law enforcement officers or trained security personnel. We believe America's schools should be as safe as America's airports. You can't talk about, much less take, bombs and guns onto airplanes. Such behavior in our schools should be prosecuted just as certainly as such behavior in our airports is prosecuted."

Never mind that LaPierre was talking about K-12 schools.  College students are adults and most states require concealed carry permit holders to be 21, meaning most students would be juniors or seniors before they would even qualify.  The point is, if a 21 year-old is able to carry concealed if they are anywhere else other than a college campus, then why not allow that same person to do so on campus?

Mike Adams had different message last week over on Townhall.com.  He later talked about his article, Full Metal Yellow Jacket ,with NRANews host Cam Edwards:



Adams' message is, keeping law abiding students disarmed makes them a sitting duck at the mercy of any criminal that they may happen upon.

Texas is currently considering allowing concealed carry on it's college and university campuses. Goddard says proponents of carry on campus have not explained how such a law would be enforced and states that adding carry on campus will complicate how police deal with an active shooter on campus. What Goddard does not say is we have a model for college carry - Utah. There have been no incidents on the campuses in that state. Nor have there been any problems right here in Virginia on the campus of Blue Ridge Community College.

Texas has the votes to pass the legislation and Governor Perry has said he would sign the bill. Arizona may also consider college carry during its legislative session. Bills in Virginia so far have never gotten out of committee. My guess is once we have more states with successful college carry, Virginia may well join the list of those allowing carry on campus.

VA Tech Tailgate for Victory

Virginia's elections are ground zero for the enemies of freedom to try and turn the tide against our gun rights in the Commonwealth. Our opponents will be pulling out all the stops as a run-up to the 2010 elections, and all eyes will be on Virginia next Tuesday! To ensure we are prepared to meet the challenges and ensure victory on Election Day, the NRA-Political Victory Fund is hosting a tailgate on Thursday, October 29th, beginning at 12:30 p.m. in Lot 2 at Virginia Tech! Stop by for free food, election gear, and a chance to meet VSSA and NRA-PVF endorsed candidates Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli.

What: Victory Tailgate Party
Where: Virginia Tech vs. UNC Football Game, Parking Lot 2
When: Thursday, October 29 beginning at 12:30 PM

For more information contact: Seth Waugh, Virginia Grassroots Coordinator at Swaugh@nrahq.org.

How is campus any different?

This column appeared in the Virginia Tech student newspaper on Wednesday. Written by Sam Stephens, a student who is identified as a guest columnist, the article is thoughtful and concise on the topic of being able to protect one's life.

I feel like I lead a good life. I'm a student at an incredible school in one of the top 10 engineering programs in the country. I have an incredible family, any one of which I'd take a bullet for. I have good friends and just recently I've landed the most amazing girl I've ever met.

But I cannot pretend to comprehend why someone would take two students' lives in the middle of their camping trip. No one can answer what was on Cho's mind when he killed 32 of my classmates, and I will never know why no one acted when the girl was stabbed and decapitated in front of her fellow Hokies.

The one thing that I do know is that not a single one of the victims of these crimes stood a fighting chance. I do know that as soon as I cross onto campus I can no longer have my weapon on me even though I'm a law-abiding citizen with a concealed handgun permit.

This issue is not going away. As more students like Sam speak out, more legislators are going to take notice and the standard "college campuses should be places where guns are not needed" will no longer suffice as a response to the campus carry movement.

Brady and Lautenberg Take Gun Show Attack National

Yesterday, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) joined Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke at a press conference to introduce legislation taking Brady's attack on gun shows and private firearm sales national. Referring to the so-called "gun show loophole" Lautenberg said:

There is no rational reason to oppose closing the loophole. The reason it’s still not closed is simple: the continuing power of the special interest gun lobby in Washington.

No senator, the reason the bill has not passed is because there is no "loophole."

Using the shootings of Columbine as their backdrop, Lautenberg and Brady held their press conference one day after the 10th anniversary of the shootings and a few days after the 2nd anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting to unveil the legislation. Omar Ramaha, the brother of a Virginia Tech shooting victim and who last week shared the stage with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg when he unveiled an attack ad against Virginia GOP candidate for Governor Bob McDonnell, was also present.

What would Lautenberg's bill do?

• The bill will define gun shows as any event where 50 or more firearms are offered or exhibited for sale. Under this bill merely “offering” to “exchange” a firearm at an “event” could be banned. The National Matches at Camp Perry and your local gun club’s Sunday trap shoot would be defined as “events” subject to the bill’s provisions. Even talking about a gun at an “event” could be seen as an illegal “offer” to sell a gun. Even if you are not a dealer, but you display a gun at a gun show, and then months later sell the gun to someone you met at the show, you would be subject to the same requirements as if you completed the sale at the gun show. If you are at home with a collection of 50 or more firearms, it would be a five-year felony to “offer” or “exchange” a single gun -- even between family or friends -- unless you first registered with the BATFE and paid a fee, the cost of which would be at BATFE’s discretion.
• Gun show promoters would be required to register with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF), maintain a list of vendors at all gun shows, and ensure that all vendors acknowledge receipt of information about their legal obligations. This means that a person who attends a show, even without a gun, who even discusses the possibility of selling a gun, would be required to sign “a ledger with identifying information.” That's because a promoter cannot know whether a person who attends his show will discuss the sale of a gun, he will have to require every customer to sign the ledger, and check every customer’s ID to verify the information required on the ledger. Gun show promoters would have to retain the ledgers indefinitely for inspection by the BATFE.
• Requires that all firearms sales at gun shows, including those by private sellers that may be selling one or more pieces of their private collection, go through a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL). A private seller would be required to use an FFL at the gun show to complete the transaction. The FFL would be required to maintain records of the transaction just like they do for any transaction they make for their business. This means that at any time the FFL goes out of business, that information would be transferred to the ATF.

Lautenberg also took the opportunity to trot out the latest talking point of the anti-rights crowd, relating U.S. gun control to drug cartel crime in Mexico.

Thirty percent of the guns that go to Mexico are bought at gun shows. We don’t know whether they’re bought from unlicensed dealers, but logic would say let’s have some idea who it is that bought those guns and what their intentions might be.

At a time when President Obama is doing everything he can to avoid talking about guns and gun control, the anti-rights lobby and their lap dogs in congress are making it priority #1.

ABC Funds Omar Samaha Gun Show Buying Spree

Last year when the Virginia Crime Commission was studying the "Gun Show Loophole," Omar Samaha, the brother of a Virginia Tech victim, testified that he wanted to see for himself how easy it is to buy a gun at a gun show. He told the commission that he walked into a Richmond area gun show and was immediately greeted with offers from "unlicensed gun dealers."

On the heels of two shootings from last week, ABC decided to trot out a story they have apparently been working on for over a year. And thanks to ABC, we now know where Mr. Samaha got his funding for his investigation of gun shows. According to this Good Morning America story, ABC News followed Mr. Samaha for "the better part of a year" giving him $5000 to see what he could buy.

Well at least that explains why Samaha thought nothing of buying guns and then turning them over to the police (according to his crime commission testimony). I wondered why anyone would take one's own money and basically throw it away by buying items one had no intention of keeping. It wasn't his money. He apparently did not deem it important to share that part of his story as all of the press accounts tended to follow the line used in the Washington Post.

I guess ABC is more interested finding an individual with a cause to help set up a story with a preordained outcome rather than talk to a gun show promoter and do a story that shows what really happens at gun shows.

It is my understanding this is the first of a series that Good Morning America is running all week.

Lynchburg Paper Gets it Wrong on Gun Shows

The Lycnhburg News and Advance today published an editorial titled Time Has Come to Close Gun Show Loophole. Reading the editorial is like reading Brady Campaign Talking Points. Can you find them?

Those shows amount to open-air bazaars where licensed gun dealers set up their booths next to tables presided over by private gun dealers. The difference between the two? State and federal laws require the licensed gun dealer to run a background check on those who purchase their wares to ensure that they are not convicted felons or have a record of mental illness. The private gun dealer does not have to run such a background check.

If you said the first and last sentence, you would be correct. Note the terms "open-air basaars" and "private gun dealer." These are staples of the gun ban lobby's lingo and both are false.

Here is another one:

Why is closing the loophole even important? Because the gun shows provide access to weapons for convicted felons and those with a history of mental illness that they would not otherwise be allowed to buy.

Several federal studies have shown that gun shows are not a source of guns for criminals. One would think the paper's fact checkers would at least to a little homework before using such tired rhetoric. But it gets worse - they now add the Brady talking point about the Virginia Tech shooting.

The issue has arisen several times in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007. Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people before turning a gun on himself, was able to pass a weapons background check and buy two guns from a licensed dealer despite having been deemed mentally defective by a Virginia court.

...But even if that order had been in place before the Virginia Tech shootings, it would not have prevented Cho from acquiring guns by other means that require no background checks.

First, the reason Cho passed the background check is because the court screwed up. Because of the error, his name was not added to the list of prohibited buyers. Making the stretch that he would have then turned to gun shows is almost comical given we know that he shunned contact with people. Second, if we follow the logic of the gun ban lobby, that gun shows are made up of tables upon tables of "unlicensed dealers" selling their wares, you would have to believe that Cho would have walked up to a table not knowing whether the table was operated by an FFL or a private individual, specifically ask if he had to undergo a background check and then make a purchase. If he had the misfortune of walking up to an FFL and asked the question, it would likely have raised red flags for the dealer.

Gun owners need to call their legislators and urge them to oppose Senator Marsh's bill (SB1257). You can find contact information here.

Crime Commission Deadlocks on "Loophole" Vote

On a 6-6 vote, The Virginia State Crime Commission chose not to recommend a bill that would require people who purchase firearms from private sellers to undergo mandatory background checks. Anti-gun State Sen. Henry L. Marsh III, (D-Richmond), a member of the commission, confirmed that he still plans to introduce a bill similar to the one that failed to clear a Senate Courts of Justice Committee last year.

Senator Ken Stolle (R-Virginia Beach) suggested that legislation be passed requiring promoters of shows to make available licensed dealers to perform voluntary background checks for private sellers who want to know whether they are selling weapons to people who are legally able to purchase them. That passed on a vote of 7-5.

The anti-rights lobby along with some supporters of families of the Virginia Tech shootings also staged another "die-in" near the Bell Tower on the Capitol grounds after the two-hour commission meeting.

Mike White, father of slain Tech student Gina Nicole White, criticized the panel for being indecisive but what he told the Times Dispatch about the shooting played more of a role in what happened on that day than gun shows (which played no role at all). White said "Indecision is what caused the murder of my child, when they waited two hours to close that school."



Update: The Times Dispatch reported after the meeting that the Commission endorsed legislation to provide an FFL for those private sellers that want to perform background checks. However, Wednesday's Virginian Pilot reports that the Commission endorsed on a 7-5 vote legislation that requires gun show promoters to pay for a State Police Trooper to monitor gun shows for illegal sales. The Times Dispatch story, on which the original post was based, made no mention of the bill requiring gun shows to pay for a State Trooper.

Spotslyvania Repeals Fingerprinting and More Crime Commission News

Spotsylvania County Repeals Fingerprinting Requirement for CHP Applicants
On a unanimous vote last night, the Spotyslvania County Board of Supervisors voted to repeal the requirement that concealed carry permit applicants be fingerprinted. This was sold by the Board staff as a cost saving measure and as localities struggle with balancing their budgets in an economic down turn, more localities may see the value in doing away with the fingerprinting requirement.

Additional Information on Tuesday's Crime Commission Meeting
I posted yesterday that the Virginia Crime Commission heard testimony but put off a vote on recommending legislation dealing with the so-called "Gun Show Loophole." The press covered this heavily yesterday and articles about the meeting are plentiful. The Virginian Pilot reported that during a break, Senator Ken Stolle, vice chair of the commission said that the commission would probably approve a strict background-check requirement at gun shows, but to survive, the recommendation would need majority support from members of both parties on the commission. Stolle said "That's not going to happen." The Pilot reports that Delegate Dave Albo, the commission chairman and Stolle both floated the idea of having a state trooper stationed at each gun show with a computer available to conduct voluntary background checks for private gun purchases. A State Police representative said that could be done if it's funded and Stolle said that proposal could likely get majority support on the commission.

So, at a time when the state budget faces a shortfall of $2.3 billion, we are going to pay a State Trooper overtime (because that's what it would be - an off duty trooper in uniform getting paid overtime) to sit at a gun show and see if anyone comes up wanting him to conduct a background check. I understand Senator Stolle wanting to offer something in the hope that we can finally stop seeing these gun show bills every session but this proposal is not going to please the other side because it is not mandatory and if it were to pass, it gives Governor Kaine a vehicle to make it mandatory with an amendment or sending down a substitute bill that would not go to committee but would hit the floor for an up or down vote.

Gun owners need to make it known between now and January 13th when the commission meets again that there is no need for gun show legislation. Key on the pro-rights members of the commission - Delegate Terry G. Kilgore, Delegate Beverly J. Sherwood, Senator Kenneth W. Stolle, Delegate Robert B. Bell and Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell and urge them to oppose any recommendation from the commission that would impose background checks for private sales at gun shows. Also ask them to oppose any proposal that would commit taxpayer funds in these tight budget times to pay for a state trooper at gun shows for voluntary background checks when there is no evidence it would be a wise use of taxpayer money. It is very likely the trooper would spend the entire weekend twiddling his thumbs.

60th Annual Shad Planking

Today is the 6oth Annual Shad Planking in Wakefield, Virginia. Originally an all white, all male, all Democrat event, it is now the place to be for anyone who wants to talk politics in Virginia while enjoying a variety of beverages provided by the candidates and other groups, fried shad roe provided by the Wakefield Ruritan Club, and a plate of Shad, cold claw, and hush puppies.

All three of the candidates running for U.S. Senate will be at the event today and speak. They will also be there to talk to the gathered about what they will do as Virginia's next U.S. Senator.

I'll fill you in tomorrow on the day's events.

Also, on a more solemn note, today also marks the anniversary of the shootings at Virginia Tech. Our continued prayers for healing are with the injured and the families of those killed by Cho.

Brady Still Trying to Protest on Tech Campus

On Tuesday I posted that Virginia Tech was not going to allow one of the Brady "Lie-ins" on the campus Drillfield as it would 1)interfere with plans to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the shooting deaths of 32 students and faculty and 2)the group had not applied for a permit (that the University would deny because they are not a student group).

The Roanoke Times is reporting today that Brady is working with students who were planning to participate in the protest in the hope they can negotiate an agreement with the University.


Tech spokesman Larry Hincker told the Times he would not rule out the possibility of the university giving a permit to a student group to assemble somewhere on campus April 16, but he said events are already planned for the Drillfield that morning and evening and the university doesn't want anything to interrupt the "solemnity" of the day. Hincker told the Times that April 16 is a time for the community to heal and reflect on the lives of people lost a year ago. "April 16 is, to us, truly a solemn day," he said. "It's a day of remembrance."

I agree. I've said before that Brady's plans are in poor taste. In addition, there are a number of students, including Tech's Student Government Association, who have expressed that April 16 is not the appropriate day for one of the Brady lie-in stunts. The SGA passed a resolution Tuesday night asking protesters "to respect the Virginia Tech community's wish to peacefully embrace the university day of remembrance by holding their demonstrations on a different date."

Virginia Tech Says No To Brady Campaign April 16 Protest

April 16th marks the one year anniversary of the shooting of 32 students and faculty at Virginia Tech by Seung-Hui Cho. The Brady Campaign was planning one of its infamous "lie-ins" at Tech as part of a nationwide protest at 70 cities around the country. This is a truly tasteless way to commemorate such a sad event but the Brady Campaign can never be accused of acting in good taste.

Yesterday, Tech threw cold water on the plan to have Tech be one of the 70 locations for the lie-in. Tech officials said that the group and its event co-sponsor, ProtestEasyGuns.com, had not applied for an assembly permit and even if they had, it would not have been granted because only student groups can request and be granted such permits.

Brady claimed that students, friends and family of the victims wanted to participate but on the Richmond Clear Channel radio station, WRVA, the local afternoon talk show host, Doc Thompson, interviewed a student that claimed just the opposite. The student said even those who support protesting guns found the choice of April 16 distasteful.

Brady is now going back to the drawing board since Tech was supposed to be the centerpiece of the protests. They may announce their alternative plans as early as today.

Gun Show Loophole Dies in House of Delegates - Senate Version to be Heard on January 21

The General Assembly is in full swing and the last day to introduce bills has now passed. VSSA is still compiling a complete list for the tracking form but there is a bill that needs the immediate attention of all Virginia gun owners. While the House of Delegates Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee defeated the House versions of the so-called "gun show loophole" bills on Friday, January 18th, as expected, the Senate Courts of Justice Committee will hear the Senate version (SB 109) of the bill on Monday, January 21st at 8:30 AM. Gun owners should contact the following members of the committee and ask them to vote no on reporting the bill out of committee.

Senator Kenneth W. Stolle - (804) 698-7508 - district08@sov.state.va.us
Senator Frederick M. Quayle - (804) 698-7513 - district13@sov.state.va.us
Senator Thomas K. Norment, Jr. - (804) 698-7503 - district03@sov.state.va.us
Senator John S. Edwards - (804) 698-7521 - district21@sov.state.va.us
Senator W. Roscoe Reynolds - (804) 698-7520 - district20@sov.state.va.us
Senator Ken T. Cuccinelli, II - (804) 698-7537 - district37@sov.state.va.us
Senator Mark D. Obenshain - (804) 698-7526 - district26@sov.state.va.us
Senator Ryan T. McDougle - (804) 698-7504 - district04@sov.state.va.us
Senator R. Creigh Deeds - (804) 698-7525 - district25@sov.state.va.us
Senator Robert Hurt - (804) 698-7519 - district19@sov.state.va.us

The Senate Courts of Justice Committee is chaired by anti-gun Senator Henry Marsh (D-Richmond). Marsh is also the sponsor of SB 109 . While phone contact is always the best, email will work as well. Anti-gun groups are trying to use last April's Virginia Tech shootings as the reason for closing the non-existent "gun show loophole. Politely remind the Senators that gun shows played no role in the tragic shootings at Virginia Tech and that three separate studies by the Department of Justice have found that gun shows are not a source of firearms for criminal. Anti-gun Governor Tim Kaine was quoted in the Saturday edition of the Richmond Times Dispatch as saying the Marsh bill is his chosen vehicle for getting this legislation enacted. That is why it is important for you to act today and let the Senators know you oppose the bill.

Will Gun Show Rules Be Altered?

Despite what is likely to be a full court press by Governor Tim Kaine, and the gun ban lobby, according to the Virginian-Pilot, some legislators will ask those pushing background checks on private gun sales at gun shows to show the correlation between those sales and what happened at Virginia Tech. Kaine and the gun ban lobby are using the shootings at Virginia Tech to push their cause but many legislators are not buying their song and dance.

Kaine is scheduled to have a press conference with some family members of the Tech victims on Tuesday, January 9th where he will likely unveil his legislation to close the so-called "gun show loophole."

The Washington Post carried an article focusing on a meeting family members had with legislators in Northern Virginia. One family member claimed that had Cho not been able to buy his guns at a gun shop, as he did, he could easily have gone to a gun show and bought from a private seller. Kaine has made the same argument.

Sadly these folks have bought in to the picture of gun shows painted by the gun ban crowd. That of a gathering of tables among tables of privates sellers with multiple guns for sale. I can't speak for shows held in other parts of the Virginia but at the Richmond shows I have attended regularly, you don't see a guy with a table of one or two guns or even ten or twenty to sell from his private collection. The private sellers I see walk through the door with a shotgun or rifle over his shoulder with a for sale sign. About a half-hour later, I see the same guy walk out of the show with the gun. Private sales make up very little of the business at gun shows.

Gun owners will have to redouble their efforts to insure this bill meets the same fate as its predecessors.

Anti-gun State Senator Sees Dim Hope for More Gun Control

In a Washington Post article discussing the upcoming session of the General Assembly, State Senator Patricia Ticer (D-Alexandria) was quoted saying the following when discussing bills related to the issues raised by the Virginia Tech Review Panel Final Report:

"There may be some wording about the mentally ill, but it's not going to be a deep and real remedy," she said. "Those of us who've been in Richmond long enough are realistic about the opportunity for getting any of those gun bills through. Which is zero."

While it is good news that anti-gun forces doubt they will be successful, gun owners should contact their legislators often about any gun related legislation introduced and make sure her prophesy becomes reality.

VSSA will keep you informed as action becomes necessary.

Kaine Joins Attacks on Gun Shows

Anti-gun Governor Tim Kaine has now joined the former superintendent of the Virginia State Police and Chairman of the Virginia Tech Review Panel, Gerald Massengill, in calling for closing the so-called "gun show loophole." Kaine explained his support on his monthly radio call in show by saying the "loophole" leaves an opening for felons and mentally ill individuals to have access to guns. He said, "You either want felons to have guns or you don't. You want people who are mentally adjudicated to be dangerous to have guns or you don't. If you don't want them to, then you ought to close that gun show loophole." As a side note, while he said he wants the "loophole" closed, he is not ready to say if he will expend any political capital to see that the effort is a success.

All of this of course flies in the face of three federal studies that provides convincing evidence to the contrary. And, never mind the fact that Cho, the Virginia Tech shooter, did not acquire his guns at a gun show, and he went through a background check.

The only possible thing that could have been done that might have prevented the shooting (and even this may have had little impact) must be done at the federal level. Laws known as Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), both of which have to do with what personal medical information can be provided to a family member, tied the hands of Virginia Tech in their ability to communicate with the parents of Cho that their were potential problems based on his behavior.

Cho had been receiving medical attention while he was in high school and his parents were happy with the progress he was making and they did not want him to attend Tech for that reason, believing that on such a large campus, he would regress. Unfortunately, because of FERPA, due to the fact that Cho was and adult, the school could not inform his parents about the incidents that led him to be referred for mental health treatment.

In short, gun shows had nothing to do with the events that led up to the shootings or the terrible events of April 16. Gun shows are simply an easy target upon which the gun banners have waived their sights.

The full article about Kaine's remarks can be found here.

Chairman of Virginia Tech Panel Endorses Closing "Gun Show Loophole"

The chairman of the panel appointed by Governor Tim Kaine to investigate the Virginia Tech shootings said Monday the nation must stop the spread of guns.

Former Superintendent Gerald Massengill spoke at a meeting of the Virginia Center for Public Safety, a gun control group affiliated with the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Massengill gave an overview of the panel's report on the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech.

According to press reports in the Richmond Times Dispatch and the Newport News Daily Press, He focused his remarks on gun control laws, including requirements for purchasing firearms, and campus policy recommendations in the panel's final report.

Massengill has never been a proponent of gun control and he is quoted in the article as saying he has always been a strong supporter of the Second Amendment but he is now spitting our Brady Campaign talking points like he has been in the room when they are written.

For instance: "we cannot allow the proliferation of guns to continue like they're continuing" or "more-thorough background checks on gun-show purchases are needed in Virginia, if only to reduce the availability of guns for illicit purposes."

As former superintendent of the State Police, Massengill should be familiar with the fact that multiple federal government studies prove gun shows are not a source of "proliferation" for "crime guns." For instance :

• The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) 2001 report "Firearms Use by Offenders," the largest such study ever conducted by the government, found that less than 1% of U.S. "crime guns" come from gun shows.
• A 2000 BJS study, "Federal Firearms Offenders, 1992-98," found only 1.7% of federal prison inmates obtained their gun from a gun show.
• A National Institute of Justice (NIJ) 1997 study, "Homicide in Eight U.S. Cities," reported less than 2% of criminal guns come from gun shows.

Further, Second Amendment scholar David Kopel has written that all three of these studies are consistent with a mid-1980s study for the NIJ, which investigated the gun purchase and use habits of convicted felons in 12 state prisons. The study (later published as the book Armed and Considered Dangerous) found that gun shows were such a minor source of criminal gun acquisition that they were not even worth reporting as a separate figure.

As to the claim in the RTD article that "35% of dealers at gun shows do not possess a federal firearms license" - you can only get to that number if you include all of the vendors who are not selling guns (e.g., vendors who are selling books, clothing, or accessories) as "dealers."

VSSA will continue to vigorously fight any attempt to regulate private sales at gun shows or anywhere else for that matter.

The Protest

As posted earlier last week, thirty two protesters participated in the Brady Campaign "lie-in" at noon across the street from the Richmond Gun Show Saturday. I consider these Brady stunts to be tasteless, especially when they use the families of victims to promote a political agenda. Worse, they provide talking points that have no basis in fact for their participants to regurgitate.

The facts are clear - 98% of all firearm transactions at gun shows go through licensed dealers. The term "unlicensed" dealer is both misleading and false. There is no such classification. If you are selling firearms as a primary function, and you are doing it without a license, you are violating federal law and the penalty is 10 years in federal prison. Someone who sells firearms from their personal collection for any reason is not a dealer - unlicensed or otherwise.

You can read the Richmond Times Dispatch's coverage of the protest by clicking here.

Gun Show to Draw Protests

If you are planning to attend the Dixie Classic Gun and Knife Trader's Show and Sale (C and E Gun Shows) in Richmond at the Showplace October 20th (Saturday) you may have to walk around or over a few bodies to get in the door. The Million Mom March/Brady Campaign is planning to conduct its signature "lie-in" at noon near the building.

These protesters will be women wearing black and they plan to lie down for two minutes to represent the amount of time it took the Virginia Tech shooter to get his guns. Never mind that it actually took him thirty days if you count the time required to wait between purchases of the two hand guns.

Why they feel the need to protest a gun show to bring attention to the act of a deranged individual is still a mystery to me. Cho did not buy his guns at a gun show. But, that is a fact that is also lost on Governor Tim Kaine's Virginia Tech Review Panel as they recommended requiring background checks on private sales (closing the so-called "gun show loophole").

This is always a very popular gun show and I hope all gun owners will pack the show on Saturday before or at noon to show your support for the right to keep and bear arms. The Showplace is located at 3000 Mechanicsville Turnpike. The show is open from 9 to 5 on Saturday and 9 to 4 on Sunday.

Virginia Tech Student Questions Panel's Gun Recommendations

A Tech student wrote a letter to the editor of the school newspaper questioning the Virginia Tech Review Panel's, and Governor Tim Kaine's support of, the report's gun recommendations. He called the rush to gun control the "easy way out" for politicians. The student continued that disarming college campuses, or anywhere for that matter, only turns people into targets for a murderer like Cho.

You can read his letter here.

House Majority Leader Griffith Calls Recomendation Irrelevant

One day after the release of the Virginia Tech Review Panel findings, the Roanoke Times reported that House Majority Leader and member of the House Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee, Morgan Griffith (R-Salem), called the panel's recommendation eliminating the non-existent "gun show loophole" irrelevant. Griffith said the recommendation is irrelevant to the Tech shootings because Cho purchased his handguns from licensed retailers. "I have a hard time connecting the two," Griffith said.

Governor Kaine responded that "Should somebody who's mentally ill and dangerous be able to get a gun or not? And if the answer is they shouldn't be, then let's have rules to protect the public and disable those people from having weapons."

You can read the article here.