WHEN, IN THE wake of the deadly shooting at the Virginia Beach Municipal Center that claimed 13 lives, Gov. Ralph Northam called lawmakers to Richmond for a special legislative session on gun violence, many of the bills proposed for consideration were quite familiar to lawmakers.
The governor endorsed a package of eight laws, including measures to require background checks on all firearms sales and transactions, reinstate the commonwealth’s “one handgun a month” limit on purchases, and create an Extreme Risk Protective Order (or “Red Flag” rule) whereby law enforcement can take firearms from those deemed a threat to themselves or others.
These aren’t new ideas. Many of them had been proposed year after year in Richmond — certainly since the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, but even after the raw, painful scar of that tragedy was no longer tender to the touch.
In all, lawmakers filed about 60 bills for consideration during the special session.
Many tried to tackle the guns favored by the perpetrators of mass shootings: assault-style weapons, large capacity magazines, sound suppressors and other accessories or modifications to make firearms capable of inflicting incredible carnage very quickly.
Others sought to deal with the less shocking, but still heartbreaking gun violence that takes place every day across Virginia, focusing on the handguns which routinely claim lives in Norfolk and Portsmouth, Hampton and Newport News, Richmond and Northern Virginia, and in nearly every community across the commonwealth.
Some attempted to deal with peripheral and associated issues, such as the need to expand access to affordable, effective mental health services for those who need help. And, naturally, gun rights supporters introduced bills to allow more people to carry weapons in more places, such as government buildings and college campuses.
There were some non-starters in the bunch, but the legislative options were plentiful and varied, providing ample fodder for substantive discussion. This, after all, is why a state legislature exists, and why the men and women who serve in it volunteered to run for office and worked to win election.
Yet, when it came time to debate these measures — and even with the anguish of what happened in Virginia Beach still fresh — Republican leaders in the General Assembly balked. Only 90 minutes into the gun-control session, they voted to adjourn without taking action on any of the bills before them.
Instead, they sent the bills to the State Crime Commission, a 13-member bipartisan group that operates as part of the legislative branch and which looks at issues and proposed laws that affect public safety. Nine of the 13 members are lawmakers, and six of those are Republicans — leading Democrats to charge the GOP was using the commission as cover for its inaction.
On Monday, the commission opened two days of discussion and hearings about the bill proposals. Members heard six hours of expert testimony before returning Tuesday to hear from member of the public, with those on both sides of the gun control debate eager to have the attention of state officials.
However, Republicans leading the commission did little to dispel the notion that the hearings were window dressing and little more, and refused to provide a timeline of when a study might be produced or recommendations might be released.
It was a compelling show, sure, but hardly the type of behavior that inspires confidence that something might get done in the near future.
Of course, that’s what most Virginians predicted. Despite overwhelming support for measures such as universal background checks and “Red Flag” laws, the GOP-led legislature continues to drag its feet, just as Republicans in Washington have erected roadblocks to these same measures in Congress.
The hearings this week confirmed that nothing will be done before the November election, a vote that will determine who sits in each of the 140 General Assembly seats, but guarantees that the question of how Virginia plans to tackle gun violence will be front and center in the campaign to come.
