
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 12, 1993                   TAG: 9310130317
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GUN CONTROL

PERHAPS VIRGINIA is finally shaking its disreputable distinction as the gunrunning capital of the nation.

Temporarily at least, it has ceded to Maryland the notoriety of being, according to best estimates, the single largest source of handguns used in violent crimes in gun-crime-ridden Washington, D. C.

During the first seven months of this year, Maryland surpassed Virginia on that score, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. ATF said that was the longest period in the 11 years it's been tracking handguns in the nation's capital that Virginia was not the criminals' leading supplier.

Fine and good. It's certainly an "honor" Virginia can do without, and a distinction that helped spur Gov. Wilder and other public officials to step up interdiction operations and pass a law limiting handgun purchases in Virginia to one a month.

But Virginia's reputation isn't the primary consideration here. It's the continuing death toll - in Washington and elsewhere - stemming from all-too-easy access to guns nationwide.

While Virginia and a few other states have done themselves proud to tighten gun-control laws, gun traffickers can simply go shopping elsewhere - in areas where gun control is lax to nonexistent. And shop they will - maybe shop 'til we all drop - until the federal government passes sensible gun-control laws to bring a measure of uniformity from state to state.

With President Clinton's support, it appears Congress may soon pass the Brady Bill, requiring a five-day waiting period on gun purchases in every state. But the feds would also do well to follow Virginia's lead in limiting, with a few exceptions, the number of handguns that an individual can purchase in any given month.

A uniform law would reduce the extent to which gun-runners simply turn to lax, less-regulated states for their supplies.

The question that was compelling to Virginians this year ought to be equally compelling nationwide: Why would a law-abiding citizen, legitimate collectors and dealers excepted, need to buy more than 12 handguns a year?

by CNB