Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 1, 1993 TAG: 9307010228
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: MICHAEL CSOLLANY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Better start your shopping early.
A law goes into effect today making Virginia the second state - the other is South Carolina - that limits residents to one handgun purchase during a 30-day period.
A person may make a multi-gun purchase by applying to the state police and proving the purchase is "bona fide and lawful."
"This law has no impact to a legitimate citizen," said Rich Birnbach, the proprietor of Valley Guns. "To the average customer, it's going to be a fairly transparent change."
Birnbach and other gun dealers said they rarely make multiple-gun sales, except to the occasional Christmas shopper.
"In my 32 years as a dealer, I have never sold more than one handgun to a customer within 30 days, so it's not going to affect me at all," said Joe Kirk, owner of Kirk's Gun Shop in Radford.
The gun-a-month law was inspired by Virginia's growing reputation as a "gunrunner" state. Drawn by the state's lax gun laws and huge profits when guns are sold in cities outside the state, an untold number of individuals carted Virginia guns north. They often were paid in drugs.
Gov. Douglas Wilder assembled a bipartisan coalition to pass the gun law - the centerpiece of his anti-crime package.
"We can no longer allow criminals and gangsters to purchase trunk loads of guns in our state and resell them at will," Wilder said last winter. "And the best way to end these straw sales is for us to place a one-gun-per-month limit on firearm purchases in Virginia." (A "straw purchase" is a gun purchase by a Virginia resident for someone who lives out of state.)
The law prohibits nonresidents from buying firearms in Virginia.
In the past, gun dealers were required to report multiple-gun sales to federal officials, so some dealers think the new gun law actually will make it tougher to catch criminals.
"Instead of one person coming in to buy 20 guns, the authorities are going to have to look for many people buying one gun each," Birnbach said. "It will eliminate the early warning systems.
"Trying to spot a pattern is going to be more difficult," he said.
And because the state police will be responsible for enforcing the new law, Birnbach said, there will be duplicated efforts by the police and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
While many gun dealers and customers see the new law as merely a bureaucratic hassle, they also fear it is another step toward gun registration or bans.
Gun owner Terry Sulsher, a customer at Valley Guns, said he wants people to know where he stands.
"Nobody who is a law-abiding citizen wants . . . criminals to get firearms," he said.
Some gun-control efforts - including the instant background check - are good, he said. "As a private citizen, I have no objection at all to that."
But the gun-a-month law "hampers and hinders the American citizen, and it's an affront to the Second Amendment," he said.
Would anybody consider limiting people to one car purchase a year because many people die in vehicular accidents, he asked. "It's an Orwellian concept," he said.
Many said they think the law will not achieve its desired effect.
"None of my customers think any of this legislation - either state or national - is going to stop the common criminal," said Jon Preu, owner of Brown Bear's Den.
"The criminal is going to go to the flea market or the gun shows," Kirk said.
Joan Davis of Galax, who promotes gun shows at the Roanoke Civic Center, said organizers "post and often send the regulations concerning gun shows to all exhibitors . . . But per se, we do not check for [Federal Firearms Law] licensing."
Under the new law, gun show and flea market organizers will have to inform state police of exhibitors at their events, according to Donna Tate, a state police senior supervisor.
The same rules that apply to gun dealers will apply to those who sell their private collections, Davis said.
Matt Dillon, vice president of Valley Guns, said the laws reflect the ignorance of politicians in thinking they can keep guns out of criminals' hands. "They're going to be smuggled in. They'll come from somewhere else," he said.
Furthermore, the laws have loopholes, Birnbach said.
As an example, Birnbach cited the "street sweeper" ban.
The new law includes a ban on the sale of "street sweeper" assault weapons favored by criminals. But the law defines a "street sweeper" as a 12-chamber gun, Birnbach said, so a manufacturer simply has to plug up one chamber to circumvent the system.
Many gun dealers and owners said they feel the media have been a willing partner of gun-control supporters.
"When a crime is committed and a gun is used, the media blame the gun, not the criminal," Kirk said. "You don't need a gun to commit a crime."
Kirk also said that while the media are quick to report crime stories in which guns are used, they fail to report stories where guns are used to stop crime. "You never see that," he said.
Gun owner Jeff Duncan said the media don't care about the Second Amendment. "If they were trying to tinker with the First Amendment, though, you'd see publicity about it [as] the world's greatest sin," he said.
by CNB