Added gun show checking promoted

RICHMOND — Legislation introduced yesterday would require private sellers at gun shows to obtain criminal background checks on buyers.

The measure would close the so-called “gun show loophole” that requires licensed dealers, but not unlicensed dealers who sell from their personal collections, to run background checks on anyone wanting to buy a gun.

Supporters of the bill, introduced by Sen. Jeannemarie A. Devolites Davis, Fairfax County Republican, say it would prohibit guns from falling into criminals’ hands.

“This is not a bill about taking away any of the Second Amendment rights,” Mrs. Davis said at a press conference with supporters. “What this is about is making sure that upstanding citizens possess firearms and that those that are criminals do not.”

Federal law forbids the sale of guns to convicted felons, domestic abusers and juveniles.

Private sellers would have to pay dealers up to $15 to run the background check at a gun show. The bill would require show promoters to provide vendors with access to a licensed dealer who can perform the checks.

Opponents say the bill would unduly burden gun dealers, who must keep records of background checks in case the gun ever is used in a crime. It also would take time away from their customers at a gun show to run the check, said Bruce Jackson, a board member for Virginia Citizens Defense League.

“I’m going to come to you and I’m going to give you five bucks, and you now have to maintain records for me for the next 20 to 25 years for $5. I mean, it’s just not worth it to the dealer,” said Mr. Jackson, who wore an orange “GUNS Save Lives” button on his lapel and was joined by about 20 gun dealers and league members.

Most background checks take only minutes, with 95 percent completed within two hours, according to Virginians Against Handgun Violence.

Mr. Jackson said the small amount of violence committed with guns bought from unlicensed dealers at gun shows — estimated to be about 2 percent of all gun crimes — makes it a “nonissue.”

“This is a solution looking for a problem,” Mr. Jackson said.

S. Buford Scott, a Richmond businessman and gun-control advocate, said any small gain is worth the effort.

“It is no consolation to the family of someone shot with a gun obtained at a gun show to know that criminal was one of the 2 percent that closing the gun show loophole could have prevented the purchase of that gun,” Mr. Scott said.

Mrs. Davis’ bill would make private sellers who get background checks from dealers immune from civil liability if the gun is used in a crime.

Similar bills have died in the Senate for the past four years, but Mrs. Davis said numerous school shootings last year and a shooting spree outside a Fairfax County police station in Chantilly that killed two officers may help to change her colleagues’ minds.

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