1/28:Edwards tried to reconsider SB109, but vote was not supported

I attend gun shows. The criminal element is NOT at guns shows. This is wrong headed and an affront to legitimate dealers, licensed or otherwise. Vote no; this is BAD public policy.

Instant background checks pose NO PROBLEM to legitimate gun buyers. We should not be protecting the rights of criminals and mentally ill. We need to be thinking of protecting us, the public.

We need instant background checks at gun shows. This poses no problems for legitimate gun buyers. Unlicensed sellers can have licensed dealers perform this task for them. We need to have impediments to criminals and mentally ill persons.

It seems to be something that dealers would request as well and not be a problem for them. Who would think of selling a gun to someone with a criminal background or a history of mental illness? I wondered why this is not done by the industry-hmmmm.

It should be not be illegal for two individuals (not dealers) to engage in a private transaction without government intervention or background checks. The way this bill is written it will end the gun show industry in VA, which I believe is the real goal of the bill, not to stop the 0.007% of guns bought at gun shows that end up in crimes. And that 0.007% includes ALL firearms bought at gunshows nationally, not just private sales, so the number of guns that end up used in a crime after being purchased through a private sale at a gunshow is so minuscule it's impossible to measure.

This is a free association constitutional issue. That two people want to barter over a legal item is not the government’s purview.

What really sickens me is that the families of some of the VA Tech shootings were USED to attempt to promote this bill.

Fact is that were this law in place the shootings would not have been prevented by it because the shooter did not obtain his firearms from a private sale at a gun show.

It was wise that the bill was tabled.