THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 5, 1996 TAG: 9604050013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Free State is doffing its cap to its neighbors to the South. Maryland is poised to join Virginia and South Carolina as states that limit most consumers to purchasing no more than one handgun a month.
That's bad news for the criminals in Washington D.C., who've turned increasingly to Maryland gun shops for supplies since Virginia's one-gun-a-month law took effect in July 1993. The ready supply of arms from Washington's suburban neighbors has long made a mockery of tight gun-purchasing laws in the crime-ridden capitol.
Now, criminals may still find all the weaponry they want elsewhere. But at least they'll have to put a little mileage on their cars in doing so.
Gun-a-month bills that have passed both chambers of the Maryland legislature improve on the Virginia model by monitoring private as well as retail handgun sales. All that remains for passage is a procedural vote and the signature of Gov. Parris Glendening. Glendening's blessing is assured since he championed the measure.
Maryland's action comes as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms reports a dwindling number of Virginia handguns showing up in crimes committed in Northeastern states. Of nearly 800 handguns recovered by District of Columbia police last year, 251 were originally sold in Maryland and 223 in Virginia.
In past years, Virginia guns dominated. The fact that the number has not slipped even more probably reflects the fact that guns don't rot. Many of the weapons showing up in crimes today were sold five, 10 or 15 years ago.
Unfortunately, as gun-control critics like to point out, limiting handgun sales by bulk has not ended violence in Virginia. Horrible crimes such as the death of 3-year-old Taylor Ricks, who died Monday in a Norfolk hospital after being shot by a stray bullet, still occur.
But it was never expected that a single law could resolve a gun-violence problem that has multiple causes and requires multiple solutions. What was expected was that the law could limit the export of death and mayhem from Virginia to its neighbors to the north.
That has occurred. At least when 3-year-olds die in New York City these days, the guns that kill them are less likely to have been sold in Virginia. by CNB