Va. Panel Rejects Closing Gun Law Loophole

Despite Pleas From Families Of Virginia Tech Victims, State Committee Votes To Kill New Bill

(AP)  Emotional pleas by relatives and friends of Virginia Tech shooting victims failed Friday to persuade a legislative committee to close a loophole that allows criminals and the mentally ill to buy firearms at Virginia gun shows.

The House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee voted 13-9 to kill legislation that would require unlicensed sellers at gun shows to conduct criminal background checks on buyers.

Such checks now are required only on transactions by federally licensed gun dealers.

Only a few relatives of those killed and wounded during the April 16 shootings at Virginia Tech were able to attend the meeting because they had less than 24 hours notice. The committee refused to delay a vote until more family members could be there.

Thirty-two people were killed at the Virginia Tech by a mentally disturbed student who committed suicide as police closed in.

"Please don't say these innocent lives were lost," said Lori Haas of Richmond, whose daughter Emily was shot twice in the head but survived. "They weren't lost - they were killed by a sick person who should not have had that gun."

Gun-rights advocates who opposed the bill noted that the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, did not buy his weapon at a gun show.

[keithle1]

carolrhill:

"MAY GOD BLESS ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WERE EFFECTED BY THIS HORRIBLE THING THAT HAPPENED AT THAT SCHOOL NOW AND FOREVER AS I AM SURE HE WILL!!!"

You said the same thing in your comment about the two police officers who were shot.


skyk:

"In the G-7 this is the ONLY nation that does NOT have gun control laws, restricting hand guns dramatically. This Country has MORE killings EVERY year that the entire G-6 group combined. COMBINED!!!"

I''m glad the USA is # 1 in something.

[gunownerdan]

Front Page Headline of "The New York Times" on November 11, 1938 -
"NAZIS SMASH, LOOT AND BURN JEWISH SHOPS AND TEMPLES..."

Nazi Weapons Law passed on November 11, 1938 -
"Jews are prohibited from acquiring, possessing, and carrying firearms and ammunition, as well as truncheons or stabbing weapons.
Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority.
Firearms and ammunition found in a Jew''s possession will be forfeited to the government without compensation.
Whoever willfully or negligently violates the provisions...will be punished with imprisonment and a fine.
Berlin, 11 November 1938
Minister of the Interior
Frick"
http://www.jpfo.org/filegen-n-z/NaziLawEnglish.htm

Coincidence?
I THINK NOT

[thgdriver]

Glad to see that not all folks are paranoid about other folks exercising their second amendment rights to own firearms.

This was a non issue in this case, the nut did not buy a gun at a gun show in the first place, so why were the gun grabers there in the second place? Because the don''t want anybody to have firearms in the third place. They are too ignorant to understand that laws are for honest folks, criminals ignore those laws, thats why they are criminals.

[harp1963]

Va Tech was a horrible horrible thing, but gun laws, like illegal drug laws, only will create a black market of unregistered guns. This countries borders are so broad the entire U.S. Military couldn''t keep drugs out. Are we going to create gun cratels in South America like the drug cartels by outlawing gun ownership? I don''t know what the solution is, but maybe we need to promote going to church the way we do sporting events in this country. That might be a start.

[skyk-2009]

Know why the State of Utah doesn''''t have a problem with school shootings?They allow trained people that have a concealed handgun licence to carry at school.This includes both teachers and students at colleges.The results....no school shootings.


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Posted by fcs25 at 09:56 AM : Jan 19, 2008
+ report abuse

LOL The state of Utah has more Ground Squirrels than People too! LOL We can''t run this nation on a backward state that still doesn''t understand that Women have rights. We need only look to OTHER nation''s... nations that are closely related to us for the answer. In the G-7 this is the ONLY nation that does NOT have gun control laws, restricting hand guns dramatically. This Country has MORE killings EVERY year that the entire G-6 group combined. COMBINED!!!

[carolrhill]

This entire thing is INSANE. Maybe when one of their family members get killed by some insane person they will change their minds. That is if they have a mind of which I doubt.
MAY GOD BLESS ALL THE PEOPLE THAT WERE EFFECTED BY THIS HORRIBLE THING THAT HAPPENED AT THAT SCHOOL NOW AND FOREVER AS I AM SURE HE WILL!!!

[kindrox]

* You seem to be the one with paranoid delusions. "Oh my Gawd, there''''s a gun nut on every corner...run away!" *

And at the same time I always hear from School that crime is so rare there is no need for law abiding citizens to be armed.

[klingon69]

That will only be true if you are a criminal or mentally ill!~ Sometimes you sound like mentally ill though!~ "LOL"
Posted by schoollord at 03:38 PM : Jan 18, 2008
You seem to be the one with paranoid delusions. "Oh my Gawd, there''s a gun nut on every corner...run away!"

[sharednotion]

If what worries some lawmakers is whether a gun dealer, or someone else, could, out of idle curiosity, type in any person''s name & address onto a Web site that would reveal something personal about their mental state, then the law could require a system designed so that only gun dealers & police would have authorized access to the site, AND, even THEY would need to type in your driver''s license number (or alternative state photo ID number) to see if you are ineligible to buy a gun for any legal reason, and, the specific site would not even diclose the reason, mental or otherwise. This could protect the privacy of ineligible mental patients: As long as you do NOT show your ID to a gun dealer seeking to buy a firearm or ammunition, then the dealer will NOT be able to access anything about you.

[fredcs25]

They did the correct thing.Government has no business interfering with a private transaction between citizens.When you live in a free and open society you cannot continue to be free if all risk are removed from that society.If you value living free then risk will happen.The only way to reduce the risk is to close society to a socialistic state in which the government controls everything about life.

Know why the State of Utah doesn''t have a problem with school shootings?They allow trained people that have a concealed handgun licence to carry at school.This includes both teachers and students at colleges.The results....no school shootings.

[skyk-2009]

In answer to your question: Poorly. With all due respect though, other nations aren''''t America, and we shouldn''''t try to compare them.


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Posted by bhxob at 05:49 AM : Jan 19, 2008
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Why not? Aren''t they HUMAN? Aren''t they direct kin of ours. What makes them different than us. The FACT is that THEY have gun control laws and THEY have no where NEAR the number of people killed every year... not even NEAR. Unless you can show some reason why, I''d say we most certainly should look into why they have so few and we have so many people killed EVERY year.

[skyk-2009]

Nervous Nancy: That was a quote, not a question. It''''s called reading comprehension. It''''s good to see someone admit that the UK is crazy though.


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Posted by bhxob at 06:20 AM : Jan 19, 2008
+ report abuse

Where did she "admit the UK is crazy"? Now you pretend to be superior to this poster slinging insults at the point she raised but you didn''t properly represent what was ACTUALLY said. Isn''t that how we got the WORST PRESIDENT in US History?

[bhxob]

Nervous Nancy: That was a quote, not a question. It''s called reading comprehension. It''s good to see someone admit that the UK is crazy though.

[bhxob]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2656875.stm

"You are now six times more likely to be mugged in London than New York. Why? Because as common law appreciated, not only does an armed individual have the ability to protect himself or herself but criminals are less likely to attack them. They help keep the peace. A study found American burglars fear armed home-owners more than the police. As a result burglaries are much rarer and only 13% occur when people are at home, in contrast to 53% in England."

[bhxob]

@Keithle1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1440764.stm

In answer to your question: Poorly. With all due respect though, other nations aren''t America, and we shouldn''t try to compare them.

[keithle1]

likeitis5050:

"He could have done just as much damage with knives, rolling pins, or spiked heels."

I know you regret typing that.

Can you imagine if EVERY person in the USA was carrying a gun? Is that really what you want?

[keithle1]

Pretty easy to tell who runs that committee. Don''t want to upset the people running the gun shows. Wouldn''t want to slow down the purchase of guns. We need a lot more guns. We only have 9 guns for every 10 people in the USA.

"Public Safety Committee". Uh huh. Funny. Run by the NRA & the people who bring you gun shows. Why was there less than 24 hours notice of the meeting?

How does the rest of the world survive without all the guns that we have here in the good ole USA? Anyone know?

[bhxob]

CBS doesn''t seem to understand that there is no gun show loophole, and that "unlicensed" gun sellers don''t have booths and aren''t allowed to sell inside any gun show.

you can, however, buy a gun, leave the show, and sell it ''person-to-person'' outside of the show, and the bill wouldn''t even stop that.

"The US Department of Justice conducted a study that found that only .7 of 1 percent of guns used in crimes were purchased at gun shows. With the visible and covert police presence at gun shows, criminals tend to get their guns elsewhere - stealing them or purchasing them on the black market."

I''d also like to comment on the "Guns in America" flash add they''re running. Tsk Tsk. By their numbers it would appear that gun homicides are slightly higher in shall issue states (1-3 people per 100,000 which is not statistically significant). However, they willfully neglect the fact that VIOLENT CRIME rates (not just homicides) are often significantly lower in states with a shall-issue policy.

[my2centss]

The N.O. Superdome was another gun free zone. We all remember the reports from inside there. Somehow guns still managed to get in. Maybe they needed a law against bringing guns into a gun free zone.

[Krazcarl]

Get honest the only gunfree zone is when you have to walk through a metal detector there just sighns and in reality invite crime not run it off.