Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508030042
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
A study by the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence was based on gun-tracing data from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. It showed that before the Virginia law took effect in July 1993, 35 percent of all guns recovered by police in the Northeast and traced to dealers in the Southeast came from Virginia. That fell to 15 percent after the one-gun-a-month law took effect.
The law ``had a real and substantial impact on gun trafficking patterns along the East Coast of the United States,'' said its principal author, Douglas S. Weil. ``Gun traffickers now are having to go to their next best source of firearms.''
But an employee of the National Rifle Association, which had lobbied against the Virginia law, called the study ``bogus.''
Tanya Metaksa, the NRA's chief lobbyist, said the ATF tracing data did not support the study's conclusions. ``Firearms selected for tracing do not constitute a random sample,'' she said in a telephone interview.
Sarah Brady, head of the anti-handgun group, said the study shows that the law ``is working to keep guns out of the illegal market.''
``Who needs more than 12 guns per year? Only drug dealers and other criminals who rely on concealable guns in their daily, deadly operations,'' Brady told a news conference. ``Law-abiding citizens are made safer by limiting the number of firearms available for purchase at one time.''
When he signed the law, then-Gov. Douglas Wilder said it would end Virginia's reputation as ``the gunrunning capital of America.''
Police said drug dealers from New York; Washington, D.C.; and other Northeast cities had recruited Virginians without criminal records to buy guns for them in exchange for drugs.
Brady said a similar law is needed nationwide. But she conceded that, given the Republican majority in Congress, there is little likelihood of any gun-control legislation being passed this year.
Only Virginia and South Carolina have laws limiting the number of handgun purchases.
The nation's busiest gun-trafficking route, according to law enforcement officials, is from the Southeast up Interstate 95 to New York and New England.
Metaksa said the Virginia law was ``aimed at propping up a handgun ban in D.C. and a virtual ban in New York City'' and can have a ``chilling'' effect on law-abiding gun owners ``who want to buy a gun they just found in a gun store.''
John Limbach, a spokesman for ATF's Washington field division, which includes Virginia, said, ``Virginia used to be one of the leading gunrunning states, but we are not making the same kind of gun-trafficking cases as before.''
The new law ``has forced people to change the way they do business,'' Limbach said. For example, he said, some gun traffickers have been forced to rely on the private, ``secondary'' market rather than dealers as a supply source.
Jerry Kilgore, Virginia secretary of public safety, said the law ``may have had an effect in reducing guns going to Northeastern states but has not reduced Virginia's crime rate.''
by CNB