America's First Freedom (AFF) reports that Virginia's U.S. Senator Tim Kaine used the opportunity of the anniversary of the Virginia Tech shooting to push for "expanded background checks."
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., went to the floor of the U.S. Senate to mark the anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings by reading the names of the 32 victims and calling for more background checks—ironically of the type that the mass murderer there had already passed.
As AFF noted, the Virginia Tech shooter passed a background check. Had a so-called "universal background check" been law, it would not have stopped that horrible incident. The reason the shooter passed the background check was because a state judge failed to involuntarily commit the shooter for mental health treatment, resulting in his name not being added as a prohibited person in the background database.
If you saw this Moms Demand Action graphic as a stand alone item, you would think that the Virginia Tech shooter did not undergo background checks before he purchased his firearms.
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The Facebook post on their page however explains what happened a little differently.
Even that explanation is misleading. Virginia law at the time was not clear related to what information had to be added to state databases related to mental health. And, since the 2007 shooting, Virginia has changed the law and leads the nation in reporting mental health information for the purposes of background checks. So, maybe Shannon Watts should find another talking point because the Virginia Tech angle is getting a bit worn.
After the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, a survivor - Colin Goddard - and the mother of a survivor - Lori Haas - became very engaged in the gun ban movement. Goddard went to work for the Brady Campaign and Haas is the Virginia Director of the Campaign to Stop Gun Violence. Haas was recently appointed to Governor-elect Terry McAuliffe's transition team.
But not all of those affected by the Virginia Tech shooting turned to the gun ban movement to try and change things. The December Issue of America's First Freedom (AFF) featured the story of Holly Adams, who lost her daughter that April 2007 day in Blacksburg, VA. While Goddard and Haas have fought any attempts to allow students or staff with carry permits on college campuses, Adams' is a different quest:
I ask a simple question: Would the other parents of victims be forever thankful if a professor or student was allowed to carry a firearm and could have stopped Seung-Hui Cho before their loved ones were injured or killed? I would be. I also suspect that the tragedy may not have occurred at all if Cho knew that either faculty members or students were permitted to carry their own weapons on campus.
While Colin Goddard and Lori Haas chose to make gun control their life's focus, Adams makes it clear they don't speak for her and offers an explanation for why that is the case:
Colin is a survivor. He doesn’t look at it from the point of view I do. He can travel the country and speak out on these issues. He’s not the parent of a child who died. So I have trouble with it, the ones who get together as Virginia Tech victims. There are two separate camps—the ones who stand in one corner, who lost our child and will never see them again; and there’s this other group who are celebrating their child made it through. If I were to go back and relive that day, I would give anything if that day, that morning, somebody in the classroom was armed and could have stood up and taken Cho out before he got 32 victims. I wish there had been a gun in the classroom.
And, she makes it clear that she has a cause of her own:
Affiliating myself with the NRA, doing some target shooting, answering the call if anybody wants to talk about why I believe what I do—why I don’t support tighter controls on guns, why I do support classroom concealed carry. From day to day, I’m open to answering the same kind of questions we just discussed. I’m not hiding from it, but I don’t pretend to represent a whole group of people. These are my views, and I’m not afraid to tell you.
If it weren't for the AFF article, you probably would not know there is someone associated with the Virginia Tech shooting that supports campus carry, because the mainstream media doesn't want to tell that story.
WTVR-TV6 reports that Colin Goddard, a survivor of the Virginia Tech shooting and gun control activist, is scheduled to speak at the University of Colorado in Boulder, just two hours before the first Presidential Debate between Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama in Denver. At 7 o’clock Goddard will formally release “10 Minutes That Changed My Life.”
Goddard is purposely holding the release on the same day as the presidential debate, hoping he can draw attention to the issue of gun control and the need for the candidates to take a decisive stance on the issue, instead of just talking about it in the wake of mass shooting like Virginia Tech or the Aurora theater shooting.
“Neither Mitt Romney or Obama have given thoughts on what they would do to reduce the number of us that are shot and killed every year,” Goddard told CBS 6. “During the next presidential term an average of 48,000 of us will be murdered by someone with a gun.”
Romney has stated that he does not support additional laws which do nothing more than burden law-abiding citizens while being ignored by criminals. Obama in August of this year reaffirmed through his spokesman support for renewing the ban on modern sporting rifles. It remains to be seen if gun control will come up during tonight's debate. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are scheduled to appear at a rally in Fishersville, Virginia on Thursday with the NRA's Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox.
The Richmond Times Dispatch ran this Op/Ed in Saturday's Faith and Values section, asserting that the repeal of Virginia's handgun rationing law is "at odds with Tech tragedy." I guess the author made the connection between the two because the Virginia Tech wrongful death trial was taking place in Christiansburg last week. Never mind the fact that the Tech shooter abided by the "one gun-a-month" law in purchasing his two firearms. Craig Anderson, the author, is a psychologist and the director of counseling services at Randolph-Macon College.
In the season of Lent, as we approach Easter, I find myself reflecting upon Matthew 26:51-52 and the arrest of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Suddenly, one of those with Jesus put his hand on his sword, drew it and struck the slave of the high priest, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, "Put your sword back into his place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword."
This is a lesser story in the arc of the Easter week drama. Nonetheless, it is not without relevance to the commonwealth of Virginia.
Anderson goes on to applaud the fact that the General Assembly decided to table bills that would expand the death penalty but lamented the fact that the Assembly passed a number of pro-rights bills, including a repeal of handgun rationing, which has already been signed by Governor McDonnell.
If any state should be sensitive to the role that guns often play in the service of horrendous crimes, it should be Virginia. If there was ever an occasion that spoke — that cried — for the need of gun reform, it was the Virginia Tech massacre.
Yet five years later, after the Governor's Review Panel, the legal wrangling and all the political posturing — to say nothing of the direct pleas of Tech survivor Colin Goddard and the parents of several victims to McDonnell — access to guns (the means) in 2012 has become easier in Virginia.
Anderson closes by revisiting the reference to the the New Testament, where Jesus tells the disciples to carry swords, then muses that it may have been to teach a lesson in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Dave Kopel, Research Director, Independence Institute, has written on the subject of using the New Testament for the purpose of pushing pacifism, and specifically references the same passage that Anderson used to make his point at the end of the Op/Ed.
Putting the passage from Matthew in the context of the rest of the Bible would, therefore, look to the passage as a warning against violence as a way of life, rather than as a flat-out ban on defensive violence in all situations.
Kopel writes that using the New Testament to illustrate a pacifist view is a very weak argument. The same can be said of the Tech tragedy as proof we need to keep rationing handguns.
This is the second Op/Ed in the last month that used a religious reason for opposing repealing handgun rationing. Below is NRANews coverage of the first:
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence says that 11th District Republican Keith Fimian's support for the rights of law abiding gun owners is what defeated him on Tuesday.
Gun violence prevention advocates and Virginia Tech survivors applaud voters in Virginia’s 11th congressional district for handing a stinging loss to Republican candidate Keith Fimian. While a wave election was sweeping the country and the rest of the Commonwealth, Fimian finds himself 820 votes behind Democratic incumbent Rep. Gerry Connolly pending a possible recount.
Connolly currently holds a margin of between 800-900 votes over Fimian. While it is true Fimian had the endorsement of the NRA-PVF and that a Bloomberg front group began running ads against Fimian for his pro-rights stand in the final week of the campaign, to say that his support for the rights of law abiding gun owners is what cost him the election may be a stretch. The district supported Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli in 2009 as all three won statewide office. All three of these candidates were at least as pro-rights (and in Cuccinelli's case probably more) as Fimian and none of them supports the position of CSGV, Omar Samaha, or the Brady Campaign, on the so-called "gun show loophole."
If one was looking for coverage of yesterday's "forum" on H.R. 2324, the Closing the Gun Show Loophole Act, they would have to look pretty hard because the only coverage I could find was on the Washington Post's Virginia Politics Blog, this UPI wire report and a couple of TV stations that had a very brief mention of the meeting. The UPI story was more a rehash of the Brady press release issued the day before. One TV station did do a report but as you will see in the video below, the reporter could not even get her facts straight, attributing the so-called loophole to state law. It is actually federal law that allows individuals who are not FFLs to sell one or more firearms from their personal collection without requiring a background check.
The fact the only extended coverage that can be found in the print media is on a newspaper blog shows just how far the gun ban lobby has fallen in recent years.
It was basically an opportunity for Brady to play videos you can see on their web site of their activists using Brady money to purchase firearms at gun shows from unwary private sellers, all in an attempt to show how easy it is for a criminal to buy at gun shows. For his part, Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke was happy to have a little symbolism to get attention to his group's rallying point:
But it was also as much about symbolism as lawmaking, because the gathering was a forum, and not a full-blown hearing. ..."We're just happy to have this," Helmke said during a break. "The fact that they're giving it this much attention is a positive step."
The "forum" was put together by Virginia Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA3) and featured a number of the same folks that turn out at the Virginia General Assembly every year to push for the annual gun show bill.
Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-Va.) chaired the forum, and panelists included Gerald Massengill, former superintendent of the Virginia State Police, and Colin Goddard, a former Virginia Tech student who told of surviving four gunshots during the April 2007 mass shooting. Lori Haas, whose daughter also survived the Virginia Tech shooting, also attended.
Apparently only the anti-gun members of the committee attended. There were no reports of questions to the participants about the other side of the issue. Freddie Kunkle, who covered the forum and wrote the blog post, did offer this for the gun owners side however (likely based on his coverage of the General Assembly's gun show bills):
Gun-rights advocates who oppose requiring background checks at gun shows have argued that the checks are not necessary because only a tiny fraction of guns have been traced from crimes to private sales at gun shows. They also argue that there is no such loophole because non-dealers can still sell or transfer a firearm without conducting a background check on a stranger they met through a want ad or in some other way.
Above all, they fear that requiring such checks at gun shows would clear the way to requiring universal background checks for every firearms transfer, whether between friends or family -- and ultimately, to de facto registration.
I have spoken with Kunkle in the past on Virginia's gun rationing law. He seemed genuinely interested in giving both sides of the issue he is covering.
Update: This report was on a local Richmond TV station. Even these folks can't get it right. There must be a template for reporters to constantly repeat the term "unlicensed dealers."
At least this Tidewater station got it right when they correctly referred to private sellers instead of "dealers."
The video below is from the DC Fox TV station. It is an interview with Colin Goddard and Congressman Scott yesterday morning before the House Judiciary meeting was held. Scott refers to private individuals and "unregistered dealers." He even says you can buy "military assault weapons" at gun shows. His staff has done a good job of making sure he is sticking to the Brady talking points.
On Wednesday, July 14, at 2:00 PM, Congressman Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-VA), Congressman Mike Castle (R-DE), Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and Congressman Mike Quigley (D-IL) will be hosting a forum on H.R. 2324, the "Gun Show Loophole Closing Act of 2009." The gun ban lobby, led by the Virginia Center for Public Safety and the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, is promoting this forum as open to the public. That means we need to have a good show of pro-gun folks in attendance to counter the antis that are certain to attend.
The usual suspects will be in attendance and scheduled to speak:
Mayor Larry Gilbert, Lewiston, Maine
Kenneth E. Barnes, Sr., MS, Founder/CEO ROOT (Reaching Out to Others Together), Inc.
Colonel Gerald Massengill, (Former Superintendent VA State Police, Chair of the Virginia Tech Review Panel, Sutherland, VA.
Michael J. Carroll, President, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Alexandria, VA
Daniel Webster, ScD, MPH, Professor and Co-Director, Center for Gun Policy and Research at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore MD
Tom Mauser, father of Daniel Mauser who was killed at the Columbine School shooting, Littleton, CO
Gerry Nunziato, Youngstown, OH
Colin Goddard, survivor of the Virginia Tech shootings, Richmond, VA
VSSA has a large number of members in the northern Virginia area so if you can be in Washington on Wednesday, your attendance would be appreciated.
What: Anti-gun Forum Attacking Gun Shows Where: 2141 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC When: June 14, 2010, 2:00PM
Virginia 3rd Congressional District Representative Bobby Scott has pledged to the Brady Campaign that he will hold a hearing on legislation to close the so-called gun shop loophole. Scott, who chairs the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security of the House Judiciary Committee, pledged to hold the hearing at a recent meeting with Lori Haas, whose daughter, Emily Haas, survived the April 2007 Virginia Tech shootings.
Scott is no friend to gun owners. Holding a hearing on the bill may simply be his way of responding to the emotional plea of those family members who have turned to the anti-rights movement to find closure. , But Scott can count, and he has to know the bill has a snowball's chance of making it out of the House of Representatives. It is even more doubtful that Speaker Pelosi wants a high profile hearing on a gun issue before the election.
I don't for a minute pretend to know what these families are going through but the Brady people are using their grief to advance an agenda. Gun shows played no role in the Virginia Tech shooting. If you have a congressman on the Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Subcommittee of House Judiciary, it would not hurt to give them a call and let them know you oppose attacking gun shows.
Representatives Randy Forbes (VA-4) and Bob Goodlatte (VA-6) , both strong supporters of the Second Amendment, are on the subcommittee in addition to Scott.
Last night the candidates for Governor debated at the Richmond studio of public broadcasting studio WCVE. The topic of firearms came up and as has been the case all year, McDonnell stood with law abiding gun owners on the issue of private sales at gun shows and Deeds sided with the tragedy peddlers by tying gun shows to the Virginia Tech shooting. CQ Politics reported this exchange:
One issue on which the candidates showed common ground was firearms. Both said they believed in the right to bear arms. They parted, though, on the real-world application of that right — especially on how, if elected governor, each would frame state law to avoid a repeat of the shooting at Virginia Tech.
Deeds said that he worked to close the so-called “gun show loophole” after the 2007 slayings and would accomplish the task as governor. McDonnell said that he worked to improve the state’s mental health statutes after the shooting and is opposed to “regulating the private sale of firearms.”
McDonnell has not backed down and has shown he clearly understands that gun shows played no role in the tragic shootings in 2007. It has been said before on this site; if Deeds can be sucked in by the anti-rights crowd on with a completely emotional argument when it comes to private sales at gun shows, can we trust the same will not happen on say, the repeal of the restaurant ban or handgun rationing?
Hampton Roads public radio station WHRV ran a program on June 22nd where the topic was "Gun Laws." The show featured a discussion on gun laws in Virginia, the "gun trafficking" issue, and guns in the community. A BATFE agent was one of the guests on the show as well as Joseph Samaha, the father of Rema Samaha, a victim of the Virginia Tech shootings. Of course Samaha made a pitch for closing the non-existent "gun show loophole." Not sure where they got the number that 40% of all gun sales in Virginia are through private sales. Since there is no background check or registration of firearms in Virginia, I can't imagine how they came up with that number unless it was fed to them by the anti-rights crowd. The show host did also attribute some of the "trafficking" in firearms to those that are stolen.
A Lt. with the Kennesaw Police Department was also a guest on the show. Kennesaw is the locality in Georgia that in 1982 passed an ordinance that required every head of households to maintain at least one firearm in the home along with ammo. The Lt. said one reason for the ordinance was a response to Morton Grove, IL, banning handguns. Another reason was the fact that the population in the metro Atlanta are led the community to be concerned about the impact on crime. He also noted that when you compare the crime rate now to that prior to passage of the ordinance passed, the rate of crime is lower.
Over all it is worth the hour it takes to listen to the program.
The Virginia State Crime Commission put off a decision on whether to recommend legislation closing the so-called gun-show loophole, but said it will make a decision before the General Assembly meets in January. Proponents of a law requiring a background check before a sale by a private individual can be completed at gun shows, pleaded with the commission today to support legislation to require background checks. Pro-rights speakers asked commission members not to confuse the issue with the tragedy at Virginia Tech where the shooter did not purchase his guns from private a private seller and did not buy them at gun shows. Some family members of victims of the Virginia Tech shooting accused Del. David Albo, the chairman of the commission, of putting off a vote to protect other Republicans on the committee who do not support changing the law.
Contact commission members and let them know you oppose any legislation aimed at requiring background checks on private sales and that you oppose any legislation that sets an arbitrary number of guns sold to determine if someone is a dealer. Such legislation was suggested at the September 9th crime commission meeting as an alternative to background checks on private sales. You can find contact information for commission members here.
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