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VA Pro-Gun Organization Helps Shoot Down Gun Safety Bill

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Richmond has seen an uptick in gun thefts over the last several years, and often, these guns end up in the wrong hands. 

In the Virginia House and Senate, legislators recently struck down a bill that would require gun owners to report missing weapons within 24 hours of noticing they are gone. Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham, who worked with state legislators to bring the bill to the General Assembly floor, described it as a “simple piece of legislation that would allow him and his officers to do their jobs.” 

In an effort to curb the stream of unaccounted firearms in our city, HB-43 was introduced. The bill required the lawful owner to report missing firearms within 24 hours, or face a civil fine of no more than 250 dollars. This would help police to keep a list of any missing firearms, and occasionally return stolen property. 

The bill was vehemently opposed by the Virginia Citizens’ Defense League, whose membership significantly overlaps with the NRA and who endorsed 7th district-loser Dave Brat. Brat refused to comment on this issue. 

“The victim gets punished twice: Once by the theft or loss, and next by the government for not reporting the loss quickly enough,” said the VCDL. 

The NRA and VCDL both advocate for responsible gun ownership, making the VCDL’s reaction puzzling for a bill designed to promote that exact purpose. As a responsible gun owner myself, I find it suspect that anyone who owns a firearm would not wish to do their civic duty, and inform the police of a missing firearm in the community. 

Shoddy logic from this group shouldn’t come as a surprise. The VCDL’s President, Phillip Van Cleave, in case you’ve forgotten, appeared on Sasha Baron Cohen’s TV show Who Is America. Van Cleave’s scene in the show depicts the VCDL President unironically promoting guns for children as young as three years old — which clearly does not align with responsible gun ownership. 

A VCDL spokesperson was quick to point out that “there are times when a lost or stolen gun will not be used in a crime for five, ten, or twenty years.” This logic is blatantly a Red-Herring defense, irrelevant and meant only to deter attention from the issue at hand: and it still admits that the gun will eventually be used in a crime. The police are better off having an idea of how many — and what kind of — weapons are unaccounted for, and gun owners need to take responsibility for handling their firearms with care. 

Guns are a huge facet of American life, and that doesn’t look like it will change anytime soon: But without effective regulation, it should come as no surprise that gun-related crimes continue to be magnanimous in our society. 

Starting Tomorrow You Can Download 3D Printed Guns

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Starting tomorrow, Aug. 1, the company Defense Distributed will make plans available to download plans for 3D printable guns. The company was prevented from making their plans available due to a restraint order previously put in place by the State Department. Cody Wilson, the company’s founder, sued over the restraining order, eventually being joined by the Second Amendment Foundation, a large pro-gun rights group. Originally, the government sought to block distribution of the downloadable plans under policies that govern with the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), however, the State Department will soon relinquish their control of these policies to the Commerce Department.

Catalogue of 3D Printable Guns from Defense Distributed. Screen Shot by CNET

This created a loophole in which both Defense Distributed and the Second Amendment Foundation could sue the government to lift the restraining order under the pretense that the State Department will not be regulating ITAR in the future. Under the settlement terms, they will waive prior restraint against Defense Distributed – opening the door for them to publish 3D plans for firearms online – along with agreeing to reimburse them $10,000 in registration fees and covering most of their legal costs.

The Second Amendment Foundation framed the issue in a press release on July 10 as one that was needed to protect First Amendment rights, claiming that the government was attempting to  “control free speech” through their restraint order and that the ITAR regulation was a vestige of Cold-War era policies to regulate the export of arms abroad. According to watchdogs, ITAR regulations “ensure that defense-related technology does not get into the wrong hands,” which would include criminal syndicates, terrorists, and those seeking to cause harm.

Wilson, when asked by CNET if he was worried about the designs falling into the hands of people with nefarious intentions, such as criminals and terrorists, he responded by saying that he had, “no concerns regarding public access.” On their website, Defense Distributed has proudly proclaimed, “The age of the downloadable gun formally begins”. The Second Amendment Foundation’s Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb went a step further by saying, “…it also is a devastating blow to the gun prohibition lobby.”

Swell.

The 3D printing of firearms effectively makes standard security mitigations obsolete given the weapons will be printed with materials that can defeat most kinds of search detectors. In 2013, Wilson, the founder of Defense Distributed, released plans for a handgun called “The Liberator” of which all 16 component parts were made entirely of ABS plastics and could be printed with a standard Dimension SST 3D printer.

The Liberator. Photo by Michael Thad Carter for Forbes

The NY Daily Post has reported that over 1,000 people have already downloaded plans for 3D printable guns including AR style rifles – prevalent in most recent mass shootings throughout the US. As a result of the policy shift, Attorneys General from eight states and Washington, DC have filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s administration to stop the online publishing of the plans. Virginia is currently not one of the eight states.

Washington State’s Attorney General Bob Ferguson has been out front on the issue and has renewed calls for a nation-wide restraining order against making the online plans available, arguing that it violates state’s rights under the 10th Amendment. In a statement released yesterday, Ferguson said, “These downloadable guns are unregistered and very difficult to detect, even with metal detectors, and will be available to anyone regardless of age, mental health or criminal history. If the Trump Administration won’t keep us safe, we will.”

President Trump, for his part, weighed in on Twitter this morning saying, “I am looking into 3-D Plastic Guns being sold to the public. Already spoke to the NRA, doesn’t seem to make much sense!” According to reporting by Forbes, the NRA has been conspicuously silent on the issue and in some instances has openly mocked gun-control advocates for raising concern about how non-detectable weapons might impact public safety; you know, like preventing terrorist attacks and mass shootings.

(Sigh, will someone wake us up when this is over?)

*Cover photo by Everytown 

Rocket Pop Media Encourages Community to Voice Opinions on Gun Reform With NeverAgainRVA

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It’s been four weeks since Nikolas Cruz, an 18-year-old senior opened fire with a self-purchased AR-15 on unsuspecting classmates at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Details including texts messages and personal testimonies have been released to the public, the last testament to the memories of the deceased; the last chance for ill-fated to express their final thoughts. The public response-complicated.

While many desperately seek reform, most of the public is left stranded among the muddled shambles of gun debate. According to a 2018 Gallup poll, over half of the American public is dissatisfied with the current gun regulations while still split on the potential ban on assault weapons like the one used in Parkland. Many look to their local politicians for answers, including the survivors of the Parkland shooting, initiating protests across the state of Florida, and national school walk-outs scheduled for Wednesday, March 14.

Here in Richmond, a public relations firm saw this momentum as a call to action to create a platform for those in Virginia still struggling to have their voices heard. “It is ingrained in the kids who are being affected by this, not the politicians behind this; this is the kids’ movement, not a politicians movement,” said Scott Dickens, founder and president of Rocket Pop Media, the company raising its banner for Richmond to rally behind.

Dickens recently formed Never Again RVA, a grassroots effort which through a website and Facebook group, providing a variety of resources on gun control for those wanting to make their voices heard with ideas for attainable steps to reduce gun violence.

“This isn’t something I’ve been planning eight weeks in advance, I woke up in the middle of the night and realized this needed to happen,” Dickens said of his campaign. 

When I went to visit the firm last week, I had several reservations about what to expect. Ergonomic cubicles, Wes Anderson-themed decor, maybe a bean bag by the floating break room. Expectations were shot upon arrival, the reflective windows nothing but pure irony to the transparent nature of those inside. Dickens was not the pseudo-Jeff Goldblum I envisioned, but instead, about as average as a man could be.

The Never Again RVA website provides a comprehensive spread on the subject of gun reform, with links to bills in relation to gun reform in committee circulation and a mission statement-turned list of grievances for common sense reform. “There’s a cross-section of things that could happen- whether you’re banning bump stocks, or raising the age limit from 18 to 21, or universal background checks- that most Republicans and Democrats agree on,” Dickens said.

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Dickens, the father of a 12-year-old and ex-school teacher, has followed gun reform closely, but became especially perturbed by the horrors that transpired on Feb. 14.

“We used to live by there in Florida, about a mile from the school, and, it occurred to me, I have a 12-year-old son- if we were still living in Florida, he probably would’ve gone there,” he said. “The idea that this could happen anywhere or to anyone kind of really struck home for me.”

The assailant, a high schooler that had purchased what Dickens and the group repeatedly referred to as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’. “They weren’t made for self-defense, they weren’t made to hunt, the AR-15 was made for one thing, and that’s to kill people- as quickly as possible,” he said.

While the site provides many resources to inform the public on gun reform, the main project behind the organization proposes a much bigger endeavor. Last week, Dickens invited anyone to come in and share their thoughts on camera, aiming to compile a collection of video testimonies to be used as “ammunition” in the fight for gun reform.

(In the clip above, Richmond students address what its like going to school in a time where mass shootings are a regular occurrence.)

Friends and relatives of the group participated,  along with fellow parents and PTA members, and local students. Some with no reason to come except the frame of their child in hand. One woman, who came in did not hesitate in voicing her opinion, “Isn’t the human brain not even fully developed until 25? Why would we allow guns to underdeveloped kids still in the heat of puberty?” she said.

Guest interviewees covered a variety of topics in relation to gun reform during their interviews, including arming teachers. “They say well-trained police officers only hit 30-40 percent at about 25-35 feet, you’d think a teacher who has only fired a gun a handful of times in their life is going to all of the sudden, turn Rambo in a classroom?” one person said.

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Dickens interviewing a local high student

According to a 2015 study by Minnesota University, researchers found that NYPD officers had around an 18-20 percent shooting accuracy. And these are officers who practice shooting daily and have extensive experience in combat situations. It would be past the point of negligence to afford these same expectations for a public school teacher.

Self-defense from the government was another hot topic of controversy. “What if the government were to rise up, turning on the public, how would we defend ourselves?” an interviewee asked. The MQ-1B Predator, an average militarized drone in usage by the U.S. military, comes equipped with laser-guided AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, wide-range sensors, and numerous assorted tools and capabilities that make it perfect for both surveillance, and time-sensitive missions; meaning it’s one of the weaker ones.

“If the government wants to get you… they will. There’s virtually nothing your rifle will do to stop them,’ Dickens said when asked about that topic.

A number of proposed solutions were addressed between the interviews, from providing universal background checks on those looking to purchase, to raising the age limit from 18 to 21. Dickens assures the best solution now is to implement small changes towards gun reform, ensuring the changes will help without much constraints on the average gun owner. And he didn’t hold back when it came to pointing the finger at who’s to blame for preventing legislation from moving forward.

“The NRA, I think the NRA propagates its power anyway it can, if you took them out of the picture, how many laws would easily pass…” Dickens said.

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On several occasions, Dickens alluded to the National Rifle Association, the controversial lobbyist group interlaced in the gun reform, to be at the heart of the opposition. And with the NRA headquarters located in Fairfax, the organization is a hot topic on the doorstep of Virginia politics.

Last Friday, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed the High School Public Safety Act into law. That same day, within hours of its passing, NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer filed a lawsuit, stating the new provision banning 18 to 21-year-olds infringed upon their constitutional rights; citing the 2nd Amendment.

“When the 2nd Amendment was written, no one was thinking of an AR-15. You had muskets, you had handguns. I think they were counting on a certain level of common sense,” Dickens said.

After some brief research and reading through an extensive article published by The Guardian, the billowing haze once filling behind closed doors began to clear. Written before the formation of the national guard and in an age where one shot per three minutes was beyond lethal, the right to bearing arms was under much different circumstances when written.

By technicality, there is no guarantee in the 2nd Amendment to individual gun rights on the basis of self-defense, with the Supreme Court disallowing individual gun rights to citizens outside the context of the militia on numerous occasions from 1876 and 1939. 

Though obvious on his stance towards the controversial lobbyist group, Dickens did extend an olive branch to the group. “If someone wanted to come in and speak on behalf of the NRA, they could; they’re a part of the community.”

Around 70 bills centering around gun reform were filed in the 2018 Virginia General Assembly session. As session wrapped up Saturday, the GA had passed only one bill, which restricts the firearm rights of people who had mental health problems as teenagers. A bill to ban bump stocks, a device that allows a semiautomatic rifle to rapidly fire failed. Most were left in subcommittee, killed almost immediately. Even still, Dickens remains hopeful for the community. “I mean Reagan was a proponent of {an} assault weapons ban, you know, even the staunchest low of Republicans can’t argue too much against it,” he said. 

Dickens hopes the program will encourage people in Richmond to have an open discussion about the issues at hand and to not let those that perished at the hands of negligent legislation go in vain. “This is a kickstart for hopefully a groundswell here in the Richmond community,” he said. “There’s definitely a break in reality between what is happening on the street and what is happening in the gun owners mind, we didn’t want to lose the momentum behind these kids, a month later it wouldn’t necessarily do any good.”

Visit neveragainrva.com to learn more about the group, or email [email protected] to get involved. Anyone across Virginia and outside of the state can submit blogs, photos, and their stories and other reosurces to the site.

Photos By: Never Again RVA

 

Richmond Students Participating in National Student Walkout Over Gun Violence

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A school is supposed to be a safe place for learning and growing, but they’ve become places where children’s lives are threatened by routine gun violence. Solutions to this problem have been offered from every corner of the country, but progress still seems stalled by politics and money. Many gun control advocates point to the 1996 Dickie amendment, banning the Center for Disease Control from studying gun violence as a primary factor.

Twenty-two years later high school students are giving up their seats and walking out during school. Student activists, along with Women’s March Youth EMPOWER, are promoting a national school walkout scheduled to occur at 10 a.m. on March 14 for exactly 17 minutes in honor of the 17 victims in Parkland, Florida.

Local students plan to join in the protest, both in the surrounding counties and in Richmond city. The Women’s March Youth Empower group is one local partner helping to promote the event, stating a goal on their website to “protest Congress’ inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods.”

School shootings are now the norm. Counting every discharge of a firearm on school grounds, the group Everytown for Gun Safety reports over 290 school shootings since the Sandy Hook elementary shooting. Congress still refuses to address or change gun control, but after 17 students and staff were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida on Valentine’s Day, students nationwide have taken control of the conversation to demand change.

Students and administrators are now facing tough decisions on how to approach the walk-out. If school leaders support the walk-outs they may be held liable if something happens to a student; if they don’t, they may face political and personal consequences from the growing movement.

Sen. Tim Kaine is one ally. In an interview with the Richmond Times-Dispatch, he maintained that students shouldn’t be punished for the walk-out, describing the students as “taking their civics education seriously.”

In Henrico, the school board meeting on Thursday was packed with students speaking about gun violence. A junior from Freeman High School described the chilling reality they face, saying, “When code blue drills are called over the loudspeakers, we no longer have the innate understanding that it’s a drill. We hear the word code blue and we slide under our desks.”

A senior spoke about the impact on the teachers, saying, “This woman, who I would never describe as fearful or meek, told me that for the first time, she was unable to take students [outside] for an activity because she was afraid of what would happen.”

The fear this teacher feels for the lives of her students has negatively impacted her ability to provide the best education she can.

At one point, the Henrico Superintendent momentarily stopped the speakers to address their fears that they’d face suspension for participating in the walkout.

“Rumors spread pretty quickly and sometimes they’re not true,” he said. “We have had no conversations about suspensions for anything that might occur on the 14th or the 24th. While I appreciate your concern about being suspended I think you have gotten some information that is not accurate.”

Gun control was on the minds of Commonwealth voters throughout 2017. According to Gena Reeder, an organizer with the Liberal Women of Chesterfield County Gun Violence Prevention Group, it topped the list of concerns that voters had during the gubernatorial election.

“Exit polls showed that Gun Violence Prevention was a top three motivator for voters at the ballot box, and the new landscape of our House of Delegates is the result of that,” Reeder said.

Reeder is a member of Moms Demand Action, an advocacy group that formed after the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School and left 20 children and six innocent adults dead. She has lobbied across Virginia for common sense gun legislation in the General Assembly.

She also pointed to support from the National Parent Teacher Association for the walk-out, saying, “The National PTA and the VA PTA are supporters of the school walk-out on March 14 as well as the March For Our Lives on the 24th here in Richmond. Their support is critical because the PTA is the backbone of our schools.”

The National PTA released a statement in support of the walkout along with proposed safety measures and policy recommendations to prevent future school shootings. The policy recommendations are in line with those offered by gun control advocates, including an assault-rifle ban, universal background checks, and lifting any ban on research studying gun violence by repealing the Dickie Amendment.

While productive conversations have taken place between students and administrators, it is still unclear what will happen to students if they participate in the walkout. The Virginia ACLU has pointed out that all schools across the county have to be treated equally, so it should not be up to each individual principal. Instead, the school board and superintendent should make a county-wide decision.

The ACLU has offered to help students that find themselves in trouble over the walk-out. According to ACLU VA Executive Director Claire Guthrie Gustañaga, “Students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

A local group has been working hard to convince school officials to be supportive of the walk-out. Henrico-based Together We Will is currently pushing the School Board to allow district-wide walk-outs without punishment. Melissa T. McKenney, an organizer for the group, worked to build more support for the campaign on social media, writing, “Please support our students and teachers by emailing school principals, Dr. Kinlaw, and the school board.”

McKenney spoke with RVA Mag to say she is working to ensure that the students don’t lose the will to stand up for what they believe. “I’m concerned that disciplining students for participating sends the message that civic engagement and critical thinking are not only discouraged, but punishable offenses.”

In Richmond, new superintendent Jason Kamras has yet to make a public statement on the walk-out, but supported gun control in a tweet that read, “Arming teachers is an awful idea. The only answer: gun control.”

We reached out to his office on Tuesday and a spokesperson said they are working on a plan and were not ready to comment.

Arming teachers was an idea floated by President Trump on Twitter, where he wrote, “highly trained, gun adept, teachers/coaches would solve the problem instantly, before police arrive. GREAT DETERRENT!”

Teachers have not offered wide support for the President’s suggestion. One high school teacher from Henrico who remained anonymous for professionals reasons told RVA Mag that she supports the walkout.

“I love the idea of the walkout. I think it will be a powerful movement. My students have my full support if they participate,” she said, adding, “They have been really affected by the school shootings and I’ve really worked to incorporate current events into our lessons so they’re seeing what’s going on in the world. It’s really encouraging that so many of them want to see change.”

Henrico County Public Schools spokesman Andy Jenks told RVA Mag that they are still working to provide guidance for schools. He said they want to be supportive of students and their families while also being mindful of safety concerns around students.

While Republicans and Democrats continue to squabble over talking points and accusations of pandering to donors or special interest groups, children attending public schools across the country are pleading for their lives and forcing politicians to reckon with truths that are deeply disturbing and uncomfortable.

Despite partisan accusations of being “paid crisis actors” and suffering a horrific, traumatizing event, Emma Gonzalez, Jaclyn Corin, David Hogg, and many others continue to advocate for gun control. The reality of school shootings has given them, along with every other kid in America, a personal background on an issue that remains ideological or partisan for many people in positions of power.

The Politicians Who Take Money from The NRA in Virginia

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Another day, another mass casualty attack, this time at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Broward County, Florida. While the names of all the victims have not yet been released to the public, law enforcement is slowly starting to release some details. What is known as of this morning, is that 17 teachers and kids have been killed with another 15 injured, some of them critically. This mass casualty attack is now the single most deadly incident at a school since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which left 28 children and staff members dead. The incident yesterday is far from isolated, however, and there have already been eight school shootings, along with 29 other mass casualty attacks in 2018 alone, according to Gun Violence Archive.

Sources inside law enforcement have said that the shooter entered the school with an AR-15 rifle, while also carrying a gas mask and smoke grenades – all of which can be purchased commercially. It is believed that he triggered the school’s fire alarm, causing students and faculty to spill into the hallways, creating a target-rich environment. Speaking on CNN, Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida), said this of the shooter’s plans, “…the kids would come pouring out of the classrooms into the hall, there the carnage began.” The shooter was eventually identified as a former student who was prevoiusly expelled from the school, but managed to escape the scene by blending in with fleeing students – he was arrested by law enforcement about an hour later.

This mass casualty attack in Florida is no longer unique, it is woven into the every day social fabric of American society. In data provided by the Centers for Disease Control, almost 96 Americans are killed by guns every day. The CDC dataset – collected between 2012 and 2016 – has tallied a total of 175,703 gun deaths throughout the US for that specific timeframe. In data provided by the Gun Violence Archive, there has been a total of 376 mass casualty attacks since 2017, defined as an incident in which more than three people were either wounded or killed – in almost all of these incidents, the shooters purchased their weapons legally.

CDC Data

So this brings up the next question, how has Congress consistently failed to implement any kind of practical legislation that would protect its citizenry from this kind of daily threat? There is a rack of legislation governing terrorism interdiction, yet since 9-11 there have only been 95 deaths in US territory due to terrorism – compared to the 175,703 gun deaths every year and there is a major cultural disconnect at work. Additionally, the vast majority of Americans believe in commonsense gun laws and protections. According to a Quinnipiac University national poll, 95 percent of all Americans support increased background checks, along with another 65 percent on restricting the sales of assault weapons.

The question then once again becomes, what gives? The broadest answer to that question is the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the money they spread around to politicians – specifically Republican politicians. In the first six months of 2017, the NRA spent $3.2 million on lobbying alone and was sponsoring 81 pieces of legislation in Congress. Nonetheless, in the wake of the mass casualty incident in Florida yesterday – enterprising media sources and individuals have started to highlight just how much money is going to politicians that consistently offer “thoughts and prayers” – but little by way of actual solutions to the mass-casualty epidemic, given the donations the NRA makes to them.

RVA Mag thought we would do the same for Virginia, given that the Commonwealth experienced one of the country’s most deadly mass casualty attacks at Virginia Tech in 2007 that left 32 people dead and 17 wounded. And in the 2017 gubernatorial election, exit polls clearly highlighted that gun policy was the second most important issue for voters in the Commonwealth. So here is a list of top Virginia politicians which have taken money from the NRA and in doing so have refused to support meaningful gun control regulations.

According to Open Secrets, an organization that tracks financial transparency in politics, the following Virginia Congressmen and women have accepted donations from various PACs, subsidiaries, and affiliates of the NRA:

According to the Virginia Public Acess Project, the NRA has invested $52,546 in the House Republican Campaign Committee and $16,850 in the VA Senate Republican Caucus. The following list is the State Senators and Delegates who have accepted the most direct money from the NRA going back five years (not including subsidiaries and PACs):

Supporters of sensible gun control legislation have reason to be optimistic based on the wave election of 2017, which ushered in a progressive sweep of the Virginia Assembly. Gov. Ralph Northam, also an erstwhile supporter of gun control since he was a state senator, has also signaled that this will be at the top of his legislative agenda. This led to former New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg to donate $1.5 million to Northam’s campaign from his Everytown PAC which seeks sensible gun control legislation. The battle for gun-control in the Commonwealth will be hard fought though. Legislation to ban “bump stocks”, the device used in the Las Vegas massacre has just been scrubbed in sub-committee, while at the same time legislation making it easier to carry guns in church cleared the Senate. The NRA has declined to comment on Virginia’s wave elections, yet their ability to lobby and finance campaigns behind the scenes remains one of the most omnipresent challenges to any kind of legislation that might prevent the kind of massacre that happened yesterday in Florida.

Until this changes, Virginians and Americans are just one AR-15 purchase away from another mass-casualty attack.

David Streever contributed to this report. 

 

Virginia Politics Sponsored by F.W. Sullivans

 

Opinion: I Am a Democrat, I Love My Guns

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The day I went to buy my first pistol, I failed to have all of the required paperwork for the purchase. To be specific, I didn’t have the required number of papers to prove my home address. The dealer looked at my father and I and said, “Is this your dad? He can just buy it and legally gift it to you.” He then went on to tell us that you don’t have to register your weapons in the state of Virginia. So it doesn’t really matter who buys the weapon or who possesses it. (There will be a state police record of who purchased the weapon.)

I truly appreciated at the time how he was helping me get around the paperwork so that I could purchase the weapon. I now have a gun to protect my family. That was my original goal, and I met that goal. I wasn’t concerned about the manner in which I purchased the weapon, mainly because I know I don’t plan to do anything illegal or dangerous with it.

But, how am I to know that someone else will be so confident in themselves, and the fact that they won’t cause unnecessary harm with that weapon? What if someone is looking to hurt people, and they realize that they don’t even have to tell the dealer where they live in order to purchase a weapon?

Photo by Landon Shroder

In 2015, there were 946 firearm deaths in the state of Virginia. 374 of those deaths were homicides. 2014’s numbers were slightly lower at 889 and 339. Those numbers are not in the top 10 for leading causes of death in Virginia during those years. 3 percent of gun deaths in the United States in 2015 took place in Virginia.

I started this by saying I am a Democrat that loves my guns. And this is still true…. with a caveat. I think it was too easy to get my gun, and I think that needs to change. I should not have to go through more paperwork and background checks to rent a $40 storage unit than I did to purchase a weapon. I know that it is not just as easy as snapping a finger and putting policy into action. If things were that simple then 25 million people would be losing healthcare right now. It will take concessions from both sides, and I just honestly don’t foresee that happening.

The NRA claims to support new regulation on bump fire stocks, the attachment that can turn a semi-automatic rifle into an automatic weapon. But a few months after the shooting, we still haven’t seen any pressure from Congress. House Speaker Paul Ryan called for a regulatory fix for bump fire stocks earlier, rather than passing legislation that was proposed in the House and Senate.

“We think the regulatory fix is the smartest, quickest fix,” he said when asked about how to address the devices. But the agency in charge of these types of issues (the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) has yet to take any steps in that direction.

The NRA and their allies spent millions on the 2017 Gubernatorial election in Virginia, as did the gun control groups. Ralph Northam, the Democrat and eventual winner, has always claimed to want to tighten up gun laws. “In his first weeks in the Virginia Senate, Northam met Virginia Tech survivors who came to Richmond to advocate for commonsense gun safety reform, and he has been partners with them ever since. He proudly voted to close the Gun Show Loophole and to keep the One-Handgun-A-Month limit,” read a statement on Northam’s campaign website.

The gun control groups loved this, and fed his campaign millions. Meanwhile, the NRA and other like-minded groups spent millions in their own right for advertisements across the state. There aren’t many issues that are as sensitive as gun control on the national stage.

It is not wrong to say that guns cause harm – but it would also be wrong to assume that a law-abiding citizen that has no history of violence or anger can do no good with a weapon. In Texas last month, a man named Devin Patrick Kelley walked into a church and started shooting worshippers. Stephen Willeford lives nearby the church and rushed over with his weapon when he heard the shots. They exchanged gunfire, and the shooter ran away from the church eventually being cornered and killed. Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt Jr spoke on the act, saying, “Had [Willeford] not done what he did, we could have lost more people.”

Banning guns will not stop the violence, and it is naive to think so. Therefore, I fully support the right to bear arms. However, I don’t support the ease with which we can acquire these firearms. The bottom line is although we cannot stop criminals from accessing guns in an illegal manner, we can work to ensure that those who do purchase weapons are properly vetted and documented. Yes, we have a right to carry a weapon – as long as all necessary information is recorded in a responsible manner.