Gun Show Measure Falters in Va. House

"At these shows, people transfer, buy, sell, collect firearms, and an individual may want to sell two or three guns out of their collection," Griffith said. "They are not violating the law."

In recent months, several families have been lobbying legislators for background checks for all gun purchases and against allowing guns on college campuses. They plan to be in Richmond on Monday with supporters from across the state to call on legislators to enact what they call sensible gun laws.

"They were killed by a sick person who should not have had that gun,'' said Richmond resident Lori Haas, whose daughter Emily was shot twice at Virginia Tech but survived. Cho bought one gun used in the attack at a pawn shop and the other from a gun dealer.

In the past, gun control advocates have supported measures to require background checks for one-on-one gun sales, including sales at gun shows. But proposals this year deal only with gun shows.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, said that if the bill passed, he suspected that the legislature would try to expand background checks to one-on-one sales.

"This would be just the first step," he said. "Next would be the private sales. You can kind of see where this is going."

Fifteen states require background checks at gun shows.

Cho, of Fairfax County, passed two background checks when he bought the two handguns used in the 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 hospitals for the mentally ill 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 bought a gun out of the trunk of a private dealer's car, no questions asked. For that reason, a Virginia Tech review panel recommended requiring background checks at gun shows.

Friday's committee vote had been expected, but Virginia Tech family members said they were surprised that many delegates did not seem to pay attention to what they said or even debate the bill.

Nine of the Republicans who voted to kill the bill received more than $4,165 in campaign contributions from gun advocacy groups or dealers in last year's election cycle, according to figures compiled by the nonpartisan Virginia Public Access Project.

"I was a little bit taken aback, because I think they had their minds made up,'' said Joe Samaha of Centreville, whose daughter, Reema, was killed at Virginia Tech. "There are two sides to an argument, but they don't want to hear the argument at all."

Van Cleave countered that the bill was unnecessary and would infringe on the rights of lawful gun owners.

"The bill would not have changed anything," he said. "If this had passed last year, Virginia Tech would still have happened."

Staff writer Tim Craig contributed to this report.