Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced a package of proposed gun control measures Monday, saying Virginia should reinstate its one-handgun-a-month rule and tighten restrictions on who can carry a gun to target domestic abusers.
He also called for new background check requirements on private gun sales at gun shows.
The bulk of McAuliffe's proposals are sure to bring criticism from gun advocates, and a spokesman for Speaker of the House William Howell criticized the governor's proposals shortly after their announcement.
But the governor, speaking one day after the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, said his proposals are common sense measures to help keep Virginians safe.
Virginia's law limiting handgun purchases to one a month was rolled back in 2012, during Gov. Bob McDonnell's term. McAuliffe said Monday that the limit is needed to prevent dangerous people from stockpiling or trafficking weapons.
McAuliffe's background check proposal is a fairly narrow version of proposals that have come up a number of times around the country, and at the federal level, in recent years. The law already requires licensed gun dealers to perform background checks on purchasers, but there's no such requirement for person-to-person sales.
That means people can sell guns to family members, friends or strangers without checking to see if they have a criminal record. This is commonly called the gun-show loophole, and McAuliffe's proposal would require universal background checks "for all purchases at gun shows."
The legislation wouldn't deal with person-to-person sales outside of gun shows, McAuliffe spokeswoman Rachel Thomas said in an email. Second Amendment advocates have derided broader background check proposals in the past, saying they put too much onus on private owners.
A separate proposal would make it illegal for gun shows to advertise that background checks aren't required there. They're allowed to do so now, "creating an easy environment to solicit business from individuals legally prohibited from buying firearms," the governor's office said in a news release.
McAuliffe will also back legislation giving state police authority, and funding, to process voluntary background check requests from sellers. Currently the agency doesn't have the statutory authority to do these checks, even when unlicensed sellers request them, the governor's office said.
The governor also called for gun restrictions on people with protective orders against them, for those convicted of certain domestic violence misdemeanors and for parents with delinquent child support payments.
The domestic violence proposals are similar to a bill that passed the state Senate last year but got hung up in the House. It would prohibit possession after a conviction for stalking, sexual battery, assault and battery against a family or household member, brandishing a firearm or any two convictions of regular assault and battery.
The child support measure would revoke concealed carry licenses for people with delinquent payments. That would affect nearly 8,900 people, the governor's office said, who collectively owe $15.7 million in back payments.
Gun laws are often complex, and more detailed versions of these proposals will be scrutinized after the legislature goes into session Jan. 14. The heavy Republican majority in the House has made itself "very clear" where it stands on the Second Amendment though, Howell spokesman Matt Moran said in an email.
"It is disappointing that the Governor, who claims to be a consensus-builder focused on jobs, is making a divisive social issue like gun control the centerpiece of his legislative agenda," Moran said.
(c)2014 the Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
