Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 12, 1991 TAG: 9102120461
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Sen. Moody Stallings, D-Virginia Beach, was not happy with the Militia and Police Committee's decision to put off the vote until all 15 members could be present.
"Somebody's counting votes on me," Stallings said.
However, Stallings told reporters after the meeting that he believes he has just enough support to get the bill out of committee.
A similar measure died in conference committee on the last day of the 1990 legislative session.
Stallings told the Militia and Police Committee that in the first seven months of last year, 11 Virginia children were accidentally shot to death. He said that in 1989, 194 children under age 18 were treated for accidental gunshot wounds in Virginia hospitals.
Under Stallings' bill, a person who recklessly leaves a gun within reach of a child under age 15 could be sentenced to a year in jail. But Stallings said punishing violators was not the primary aim of his bill.
"I'm not interested in putting people in jail," he said. "I'm interested in people locking up their guns. That's not a big burden on gun owners."
Navy Cmdr. David Whitt of Springfield said his son, Lance, might be alive today had Stallings' bill passed last year. Whitt's 20-year-old son accidentally was shot to death last September by a 17-year-old acquaintance who was playing with a loaded handgun owned by someone else.
"How many more citizens and children are going to have to die needlessly before something is done?" Whitt asked. "There's absolutely no excuse or argument for not enacting a gun-responsibility law when the sole purpose is to save human life."
Some committee members questioned whether Stallings' bill would have made any difference in the Whitt case since the teen-ager who pulled the trigger was 17. But Whitt suggested that had the law been on the books, the owner of the gun might have kept it locked up.
"People are too damn reckless," Whitt said. "They're irresponsible. That's what's at issue."
Richmond Police Maj. C.W. Bennett agreed.
Allowing police to prosecute gun owners who leave loaded guns where children can reach them would send a message that "with the right to keep and bear arms comes the responsibility to do so in a manner that does not endanger children," Bennett said.
Charles Cunningham, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association, told the committee that the bill unfairly targets firearms while not addressing other dangerous items like household chemicals, matches and kitchen knives. "Many inanimate objects can be used," Cunningham said. "I don't think singling out firearms is necessarily the best way to go."
Cunningham said educating children on gun safety is a better alternative. He said the NRA has been active in that regard, and accidental shooting deaths of children have dropped 52 percent over the last 20 years.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY
by CNB