When Terry McAuliffe ran for governor of Virginia last year, he did not shy from the issue of gun control. Instead, he promised a raft of gun safety measures, and was nevertheless elected.
Governor McAuliffe delivered impressively on that promise
this week. The Democrat proposed the restoration of the state’s limitation on handgun sales to one a month, plus mandatory background checks on buyers — enforced by a police presence. That would close
the gun sales loophole at weekend firearm shows. He also proposed an end to gun permits for anyone restrained under domestic violence orders of protection. The governor cited research showing that women are much
more likely to be killed in violent domestic confrontations when a gun is present.
Virginia law is rife with gun-safety loopholes, according to the governor, who made sure to present himself as a proud Second Amendment gun owner (he bought a rifle for skeet shooting
in time for the campaign last year).
He said that gun sales should be denied to anyone convicted of such telltale misdemeanors as stalking, sexual battery, assault against a family member or brandishing a firearm. These offenders are currently permitted to have guns. Parents delinquent in child support who legally pack concealed handguns, another worrisome category, should also be denied weapons. There are about 9,000 such gun holders owing $15 million in child support, said Mr. McAuliffe in challenging the legislature to mandate better safety measures for these tinderbox conditions.
Members of the Republican-controlled legislature are already answering: no way this will happen.
Two years ago, the gun lobby showed its statehouse clout. It convinced the legislature and Republican Gov. Bob McDonnell to repeal what had been the state’s landmark 1993 law limiting sales to one handgun a month per buyer. The law was a response to research showing that Virginia was a major source for the “Iron Pipeline” of guns marketed to the underworld in other states.
Mr. McAuliffe, a one-time national Democratic strategist said to have been wary of the gun issue during the Bill Clinton era, obviously calculated his own chances carefully. Perhaps he was swayed by the fact that moderate suburbanites are gradually becoming more influential in the state.
Whatever his proposals’ chances with the legislature, the governor clearly intended to push the gun safety issue to the public fore in time for next year’s Virginia elections.