Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 16, 1993 TAG: 9302160322
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN HAYWOOD ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: POWHATAN LENGTH: Medium
INMATES: BLACK MARKET THE REAL GUN PROBLEM
As a convicted felon, Alvin Mayberry won't be able to buy a gun legally if he's released from prison. But Mayberry says he could get a gun from the black market within hours of leaving Powhatan Correctional Center."I could probably go to 30 or 40 people to buy a gun if I wanted one," said Mayberry, serving a 92-year sentence. "That's what they got to stop."
Mayberry and fellow Powhatan inmates Everett Christian and Douglas Thomas said they and others behind bars are following the gun debate in the General Assembly.
The House of Delegates has passed Gov. Douglas Wilder's original proposal to limit handgun purchases to one a month. The Senate has passed a modified Republican bill, a compromise with Wilder, that would allow the purchase of more than one handgun a month after a background check at a police station.
The bills are intended to stem the flow of handguns from Virginia to Washington, D.C., New York City and other East Coast cities.
The proposed laws, Thomas said, will "cut down drastically only on persons going to this state, buying guns and taking them to other states. It can't curtail all these killings going on" in Virginia.
But the legitimate gun store's biggest competition is the black market, the convicts said. Until the black market in guns is stopped, the gun problem won't be solved, they said.
"It's not nearly enough. The same way they have control on explosives, it should be the same on guns," Thomas said.
Said Mayberry: "You're not going to stop guns until you start setting up stings for the black market."
Mayberry said he has bought several revolvers over the years, none from a legitimate gun shop, for less than $100 each.
"I got mine through the black market," he said. "You just know who to go to buy a gun - not the store. I don't want to say who. They're still in business."
Mayberry said gun control would mean "nobody but criminals would have guns - them and police."
All three were convicts sentenced for crimes involving guns and got more time for use of a firearm.
Christian, 40, of Richmond, was sentenced to 71 years in 1983 for armed robbery and unlawful wounding committed while he was on parole. He used a .38-caliber revolver.
Mayberry, 51, of Savannah, Ga., was convicted of bank robbery and attempted murder for a 1981 holdup. He also used a .38-caliber revolver.
Thomas, 25, of Richmond, was sentenced in 1985 to 42 years for first-degree murder and robbery. He used a .22-caliber rifle that he borrowed from a friend. Rifles are not covered under the gun-control legislation.
Christian said if he hadn't had access to a gun, he might not have committed the robbery that landed him in prison.
"Not to make excuses, but if this person I borrowed the gun from, if he hadn't had that gun, I might not have committed the crime," Christian said.
Christian and Thomas said a gun-a-month law would be a good start, but it wouldn't be enough.
"I'm for gun control," Christian said. "Guns being loose and being able to obtain as easily as they are is the reason so many black youth and men are able to kill each other.
"When I was coming up, living in the ghetto, if there was an argument, it was a fight or a stabbing. Now it's gone crazy."
Gun-control laws are "stupid," Mayberry said. What's needed, he said, is "kid control."
\ CONVICTS SPEAK\ ON GUN-A-MONTH BILL\ \ Alvin Mayberry: "One gun a month, what about one gun every 10 years? When it wears out you can get another one. Why do I need 12 guns a year?"\ \ Everett Christian: "One of the main reasons I'm for it, is I know for a fact the more crimes are committed with guns in society, in the free world, it will lessen our chances of getting out. If we are in for guns, they are going to look at it and say, `If they are in there for using guns, let's keep them in there.' "\ \ Douglas Thomas: "If somebody breaks in my house and I got to protect myself, stun guns are just as effective. With a gun, you might kill somebody."