By Anita Kumar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 9, 2008

RICHMOND, Jan. 8 -- Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said Tuesday that he will push the General Assembly to require all sellers to conduct background checks on those who want to purchase firearms at gun shows.

For years, gun-control advocates have tried unsuccessfully to close the so-called gun show loophole in Virginia. But they hope the issue will gain momentum in the first legislative session since an April rampage at Virginia Tech left 33 people dead, including the shooter.

"There is no reason for law-abiding gun owners to oppose a background check," Kaine (D) said. "Now more than ever in the aftermath of April 16th, Virginians understand that this is a public safety issue."

Kaine's announcement was the last in a series presenting his priorities for the 60-day legislative session that begins Wednesday.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, which opposes the bill, said the governor was pushing background checks for political reasons and predicted that it will not pass.

"Criminals don't get guns at gun shows,'' he said. "It's not going to do anything about crime."

Kaine has supported background checks before, but he said this is the first year he will actively lobby for a change. Many Republican lawmakers remain opposed, as do some rural Democrats.

Sen. John S. Edwards (D-Roanoke), whose district includes Virginia Tech, said the campus shooting should lead to an overhaul of the mental health system, not a change in gun laws. "The issue here is one of mental health,'' he said.

Kaine announced his proposal at Virginia State Police headquarters, standing with about a dozen relatives of Virginia Tech victims.

"We need to do this so Virginia can be a safer place,'' said Cathy Read, whose stepdaughter Mary was killed by student gunman Seung Hui Cho in April.

In recent months, several families of Virginia Tech victims have taken positions in support of background checks for all gun purchases and against allowing guns on college campuses.

Mike White, a gun owner whose daughter Nicole was killed, called Kaine's proposal "a healthy compromise that will bring safety to our families."

Federal and Virginia laws require licensed gun dealers to screen customers through instant background checks. In Virginia, felons, mentally ill people and domestic abusers are not allowed to buy firearms. But the state does not require background checks for people who buy guns in private sales at gun shows.

In the past, gun-control advocates have supported measures to require background checks for one-on-one gun sales, including sales at gun shows. Kaine said it would be difficult to regulate all one-on-one sales, so his proposal deals only with gun shows. Fifteen states require background checks at gun shows.

Cho, of Fairfax County, passed two background checks when he bought two handguns used in the Virginia Tech massacre. Although a judge had found Cho a danger to himself and ordered him to undergo outpatient mental health treatment, Virginia at the time required that only the names of those committed to mental hospitals be reported to the FBI.

Kaine has since signed an executive order requiring that anyone ordered by a court to receive mental health treatment be added to a state police database of people barred from buying guns.

Had Cho been turned away at a gun store, experts say, he could have gone to a gun show and easily bought a gun out of the trunk of a private dealer's car, no questions asked. For that reason, the Virginia Tech Review Panel recommended requiring background checks at gun shows.

"It is an idea whose time has come,'' said Sen. Henry L. Marsh III (D-Richmond), who has tried to pass a similar bill since 2004 and will introduce this year's bill.

The General Assembly last passed laws restricting gun ownership more than a decade ago. In recent years, legislators have made it easier to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon. They also have made it easier to carry such weapons into once-forbidden areas, such as the parking lot of Reagan National Airport.