There is such a lack of logic in this “response” that it’s hard to know where to begin.
Brady Campaign Responds to NRA
Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, has issued a statement responding to the National Rifle Association’s endorsement of Bob McDonnell for governor. According to Helmke, the “one critical issue” that separates Virginia’s candidates for governor on gun rights is the tightening of rules for buying weapons at gun shows–the so-called gun show loophole.
“Creigh Deeds agrees with the families of the victims of Virginia Tech that the most dangerous people, prohibited by law from purchasing guns from federally licensed gun dealers, shouldn’t be able to get around those laws by buying them from non-licensed gun sellers at weapons bazaars,” Helmke said in his statement. “Bob McDonnell, who now refuses to acknowledge that this gaping loophole in Virginia gun laws even exists, appears eager to do whatever the gun lobby wants him to. That’s playing politics with public safety, and the voters should judge the candidates accordingly.”
– The gun show “loophole” (which is not a loophole) is that an individual citizen can sell his or her privately owned firearm without following rules that were enacted for federally licensed firearms dealers. In other words, you’re not subject to laws that don’t apply to you. Current Virginia law says you can sell a privately owned handgun to a buyer as long as you know he’s a Virginia resident and you have no reason to believe he would not be prohibited from owning it. This law doesn’t change by geography; it remains consistent whether you’re in your living room or at a gun show. (Now, if you wanted to sell something, doesn’t it make sense to be where there’s a congregation of people who want to buy that thing? Think of growing produce; if you want to sell produce, a farmers’ market is a logical place to be because that’s where buyers will be.)
– The families of the Virginia Tech victims would be in no different straits today if the law were changed; the VT shooter did not buy his guns at a show, and in fact did pass the federal background check. The loophole is that his mental health records were never entered into the databases checked by the NICS. That loophole was closed almost immediately by Gov Kaine.
– Creigh Deeds has admitted that he changed his mind on this issue due to emotional pleas from families of some of the VT victims. He wants to legislate to “respond to grief“. This is absolutely the wrong reason to pass any legislation, and is more reprehensible coming from someone who knows that the legislation would change nothing.
Deeds, who owns several firearms and has hunted since he was a child, said he understands the importance of the Second Amendment and has no interest in working for broader gun controls except for the gun show loophole.
“For me, everything changed on April 16, 2007,” Deeds said in an interview Sunday. “As a father, I felt just a need deep down in my soul to respond to their grief somehow.”
Note, the Brady campaign is not endorsing Deeds. Instead, it’s relying on its old “evil NRA” mantra. Instead of doing something positive, they’ll badmouth the NRA at every turn. It says to me the Brady Bunch can’t think very deeply (well, I already believe that). The NRA happened to make this endorsement, so it gave the BB something to rail about. There are more grass-roots gun-owners groups in Virginia, each of whom will make or not make endorsements in its own time, and many of which include significant numbers of gun owners who dislike the NRA for various reasons. In many ways, the BB blaming the NRA for all evils of the world are like the protesters who blame Obama for the nation’s ills. Point at the leader, and let him/it take the blame.
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