Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 13, 1994 TAG: 9402130061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Short
Another measure, aimed at cracking down on guns sales by unlicensed firearms dealers, was shelved by a House committee.
The measure that won preliminary House approval prohibits law enforcement agencies from selling or trading their old firearms to anyone other than law enforcement agencies, licensed firearms dealers or retired law enforcement officers. Firearms dealers and retired law enforcement officers also must be cleared by the state's instant criminal background check.
The bill, sponsored by Del. James Almand, D-Arlington, is an attempt to prevent high-powered former police weapons from entering the civilian gun market. Some former police guns were linked to recent murders in New York and Michigan.
The House will take a final vote on the measure today.
Meanwhile, members of the House Militia and Police Committee killed a bill to require firearms dealers to be registered in Virginia.
That bill, sponsored by Del. William Robinson, D-Norfolk, called for all firearms dealers to pay a $500 application fee to register with the Virginia State Police. To be licensed, arms dealers would have faced a criminal background check and would have been required to operate out of a fixed site.
On a 12-8 vote, the committee passed by the bill indefinitely, which effectively kills it for the 1994 assembly session.
There are 7,900 federally licensed firearms dealers in Virginia. Scores of other unlicensed individuals in the state sell firearms from their homes, cars, storage units, through newspaper ads and on the street.
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GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB