To the editor:

How is it possible for the Virginia Crime Commission and the RTD editorial writers to so completely miss the point on the issue of background checks at gun shows? The issue should have nothing to do with controlling who is selling guns at gun shows, but rather with who is buying them. When sales are unregulated and buyer’s backgrounds are not checked, then dangerous individuals get easy access to deadly weapons. It makes no difference to the victim of a shooting whether the gun used was bought from a licensed dealer, a hobby seller or a private individual. If the shooter had a criminal record, a history of dangerous mental illness or domestic abuse etc. they should not have been allowed to buy a gun at a gun show, or from anywhere else for that matter. It would be of no benefit whatsoever to public safety to penalize private gun sellers by analyzing their sales volume, or profit motive, in order to categorize them as dealers, when the simple answer is to protect the public, and the sellers themselves, by checking on the background of the buyer! People don’t sell guns to hurt people, but a few individuals certainly buy them for that purpose.

Paying a few dollars for admission to a gun show does not guarantee that anyone is a law abiding citizen, that presents no potential threat to society. Background checks discourage ineligible buyers from obtaining guns from licensed vendors at gun shows, without adversely impeding law abiding buyers, and the same would be true if applied to “private” sales. Characterizing this issue as an attempt to restrict the actions of law abiding private sellers at gun shows, by making them obtain licenses etc., would be totally counterproductive and would quite justifiably enrage and mobilize the pro gun lobby. On the other hand, maybe that is the real objective?

Andrew Goddard
Million Mom March against Gun Violence
Richmond