Background-Check Bill Sparks Capitol 'Lie-In'
By Sandhya Somashekhar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
RICHMOND, Jan. 21 -- Hundreds of advocates flooded the state Capitol on Monday to urge the Virginia General Assembly to enact reforms on such issues as the environment, immigration and gun control.
On a day dominated by personal lobbying, memories of the massacre at Virginia Tech pervaded the Capitol as activists from across the state converged to call on lawmakers to make changes in Virginia's gun laws and mental health system.
Although Monday was a federal holiday commemorating the birth of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the General Assembly was in session. The House of Delegates voted tentatively to repeal the high fees on bad drivers and to delay until 2010 the requirement that schoolgirls be vaccinated against a virus that can cause cervical cancer.
Gun-control advocates, including survivors of the April 16 shooting rampage that took the lives of 32 victims at Virginia Tech, poured into a Senate committee meeting to support a bill that would require background checks for all gun-show sales. They then staged a "lie-in," lying on their backs outside the Capitol to draw attention to gun deaths in Virginia last year.
Many gun-rights activists also showed up at the committee meeting -- some wearing guns -- and came in force to watch the protest. The gun-show law, which failed in a House committee last week and is not expected to pass this year, would not have stopped Virginia Tech senior Seung Hui Cho from killing fellow students and himself last year, they have argued.
"I think it's a huge display of ignorance," said Anne Burke, 47, gesturing to the people lying in the grass. The Spotsylvania County resident wore a sticker that said, "Guns save lives."
But the counter-demonstration drew a tearful reaction from Kate Villars, 19, of Centreville, whose friend Reema Samaha died in the Virginia Tech attack.
"I respect their right to express their views, but I felt they were very disrespectful," she said, wiping away tears.
Elsewhere, environmentalists lobbied lawmakers in support of a bill that would require that 20 percent of the state's energy come from such renewable sources as wind and solar energy. And activists from Northern Virginia held a news conference to try to garner support for more than 100 immigration bills that have been introduced in the General Assembly, many of which would curb services to illegal immigrants.
Earlier in the day, hundreds of people involved in mental health and mental retardation issues gathered at a church across the street from the Capitol to call for additional money for counseling and drug treatment, among other things. The legislature has begun sorting through the dozens of bills introduced this session to reform the state's mental health system in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.
The most visible activists, however, were those on both sides of the gun-show law. Currently, unlicensed gun vendors at gun shows are not required to conduct background checks on purchasers. Gun-control advocates say that is a loophole in the law that could lead to another massacre.
But gun-rights groups argue that the killings at Virginia Tech would not have been prevented by the law because Cho did not buy his weapons at a gun show. Moreover, they say, requiring average citizens, who often sell at gun shows, to do background checks could threaten privacy rights and hurt business.
"It comes down to: Guns are a legal commodity, a right under the Constitution," said Nick DeLeon, 29, a sporting goods salesman from Springfield. Like many of the gun-rights advocates, he came toting a pistol, a .45-caliber semiautomatic, over his right hip.
At one point during Monday's hearing of the Senate's Courts of Justice committee, Philip Van Cleave, president of the pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League, said gun laws are already "onerous." For example, he said, an instant background check can take more than 24 hours, a complaint that drew sarcastic cries of sympathy from the anti-gun activists.
It also prompted an angry response from Senate Majority Leader Richard L. Saslaw (D-Fairfax), who sits on the committee. "How onerous do you think this has been on the family sitting to your left?" he said, referring to relatives of Samaha.
The tensions flared again during the protest when families of victims of gun violence made emotional and sometimes fiery pleas for more restrictive gun laws. Gun-rights advocates quietly held up signs that said: "Life is precious. Guns protect it," and "Freedom is not a loophole."
The sentiment inspired quiet anger in Colin Goddard, 22, a Virginia Tech senior and a survivor of the shootings, who said lax gun laws were partly to blame for the incident.
"People tell me I am alive because of God or luck or a bunch of other stuff," he said. "I don't know how much I can accept any of those, but one thing I can't accept is that it was just criminals being criminals and I was just caught in the wrong situation at the wrong time."
Staff writers Tim Craig and Anita Kumar contributed to this report.
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