NRA hit bulls-eye with Va. lawmakers
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 8, 2004
Northern Virginians can be forgiven for thinking that Virginias tourism slogan needs an update.
Virginia Is For GUN Lovers looks more and more like the appropriate theme. Lately, members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League have been turning up at restaurants and shopping centers wearing guns strapped to their hips.
Nothing in Virginia law prevents such public displays, even in establishments where alcohol is served, so long as the tavern owners dont overtly object. But according to news accounts, its been an unsettling sight for some of the clientele.
No kidding.
Maybe law-abiding gun-owners feel safer when theyre packing heat. But fellow diners have no idea whether theyre seated next to Wyatt Earp or Billy the Kid.
Then last weekend, Fairfax County witnessed its first major gun show in decades. Since the 1940s, the populous county has had a local ordinance requiring a three-day wait for gun purchases. That pretty much put an end to gun shows, which are typically two-day affairs.
Thanks to Virginias gun-friendly General Assembly, however, the waiting period is kaput. Last winter, lawmakers overturned a grandfather clause that protected the Fairfax law and some others. The result was a weekend gun show described by The Washington Post as a thousand tables covered with enough guns to arm a militia.
The locals wont be reassured to know that many of those guns were probably sold without background checks. The 2004 General Assembly defeated a bill closing the so-called gun-show loophole in a Virginia law that requires police checks on most gun purchasers.
While that worthy bill was failing, more than a dozen proposals loosening Virginias handle on firearm sales enjoyed a different fate. In its August magazine, the National Rifle Association boasted of an extraordinary legislative session in Virginia. Gov. Mark Warner, who cultivates his distinction as an NRA-tolerant Democrat, even merited a picture. Fortunately, the gun news from the 2004 session wasnt all bleak. Gun-control advocates almost got a bill closing the gun-show background-check-loophole through the Senate though it surely would have been drawn-and-quartered in the House.
Virginia Beach Sen. Ken Stolle led a successful effort to keep guns out of airports. And one of the NRAs favorites allowing patrons to carry concealed weapons in restaurants that sell alcohol got nowhere.
That mixed bag illustrates how divided Virginia remains over gun issues.
Unfortunately, the stronger hand still appears to rest with the House Committee on Militia and Police. Even a bill prohibiting individuals convicted of stalking or sexual battery from owning a gun failed 13-8 in that stronghold.
One advantage of the growing gun-rights activism in Northern Virginia is that it may open eyes to the extent of the NRAs influence in Virginia.
Without vigilance, the next target could be Virginias much-heralded, one-gun-a-month purchase limit. South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, pictured next to Warner in the NRA magazine American Rifleman, recently signed into law repeal of the nations first such purchase limit.
Virginias law, enacted in reaction to gun-running from Virginia to New York and other northeastern states in the early 1990s, passed close on the heels of South Carolinas.
Fairfax County residents are getting a firsthand taste of the NRAs success in repealing old gun-control laws.
