ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 6, 1990                   TAG: 9003061789
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium


CHILD GUN PROTECTION BILL CLEARS

A House panel Monday approved a compromise measure designed to make it illegal for adults to leave loaded guns available to children.

The compromise, crafted by Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, would make it a misdemeanor for an adult to "recklessly" leave a weapon where a child under 12 could gain access. Violations could bring a six-month jail sentence.

Sen. Sonny Stallings, D-Virginia Beach, a feisty Vietnam veteran who sponsored the measure, said he would push to get the weakened measure passed. Stallings' original measure made simply leaving a gun available to a child a crime. It also covered children under 14.

"This bill is going to lock up guns, believe it or not," Stallings said after the House Courts of Justice Committee approved the amended measure, 15 to 5. "People had better watch where they leave their guns."

Stallings admitted that applying the "reckless" standard to the law would make it difficult to prosecute.

During committee action, Stallings complained "you're almost going to have to have a man leave a loaded gun in a day-care center to get a conviction" under the reckless-standard.

But he said later his measure was never aimed at jailing gun owners.

"This will send a message to every gun owner to lock 'em up," Stallings said. With the jail penalty as a deterrent, "there's a little meat on this bone," he said.

Stallings said that someone who left a loaded shotgun in the rack of a pickup truck with children could be charged under the bill.

"After I read and digested the compromise, I feel very comfortable with it," Stallings said.

Lobbyists for the gun dealers said Monday they had not decided whether to oppose the measure. It goes to the House floor next. If approved, the bill goes back to the Senate for approval of the compromise.

Cranwell and Stallings predicted the measure will pass on either side.

Cranwell, who unveiled his approach to the issue at a morning subcommittee meeting Monday, said he chose the reckless-standard "because it's somewhere between negligence and felonious negligence."

It would apply, he said "if you leave firearms around where they are likely to cause injury to a child."

Cranwell's proposal limited the application to children under 7. But Del. Warren Stambaugh, D-Arlington, offered an amendment to raise the age to 12, citing other laws that require children to have firearms training to hunt at that age.

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY



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