AMERICANRIFLEMAN.ORG SEPTEMBER (^201919)
Photos by NRA-ILA
attack. That report is still forthcoming
as of press time.
Northam’s move was a sharp
departure from the more deliberative
track taken by Gov. Tim Kaine following
the 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech.
In the wake of that tragedy, then-
Gov. Kaine convened a bipartisan
review panel, and lawmakers enacted
thoughtful legislation to keep firearms
out of the hands of certain individuals
with severe mental illnesses.
Some lawmakers openly
questioned whether Northam’s haste
was as much an attempt to distract
from ongoing political scandals as it
was an effort to enact gun control.
In February, a racist photo from
Northam’s medical-school yearbook
page surfaced. As a result, Northam’s
favorability ratings plummeted,
while the state’s black caucus and
media outlets called for him to
resign. Northam’s prospects looked
dim until an even more explosive
scandal erupted involving multiple
sexual-assault allegations against his
would-be successor, Democratic
Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.
As noted, the facts of the Virginia
Beach shooting attack incident are
still somewhat limited, but here is
what we do know. On the afternoon
of May 31, 2019, a disgruntled Virginia
Beach city engineer entered Municipal
Center Building 2, and killed 11 of
his colleagues and a contractor.
The perpetrator accessed the
building using his employee keycard.
According to multiple news reports,
the perpetrator carried out the
attack with two .45-caliber handguns,
one of which was equipped with a
suppressor. A Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
(ATF) investigation showed the
firearms were purchased legally—one
in 2016 and the other in 2018. The
New York Times reported that the
perpetrator had served in the Virginia
Army National Guard and had “no
obvious criminal history.”
This fact pattern did not lend
itself to gun-control advocates’
pre-packaged policies. Nonetheless,
Northam used the tragedy as a
platform to push a raft of ineffective
gun-control measures. Revealing the
crass opportunism at play, several of
the governor’s proposals already had
been considered and rejected during
the Regular Session of the General
Assembly that ran from January
through March.
As outlined in a July 7 press
release, Northam’s top gun-control
priority was criminalizing the private
transfer of firearms, imprecisely
referred to as “universal background
checks.” This gun-control measure
does not stop criminals from obtaining
firearms. A 2016 U.S. Department
of Justice (DOJ) survey of state and
federal prison inmates found that 75
percent had gained access to a firearm
by theft—“off the street/underground
market,” or “from a family member
or friend, or as a gift.” None of the
high-profile shootings in the last five
years with 10 or more fatalities would
have been prevented by “universal
background checks.” The perpetrator
of the Virginia Beach attack purchased
his handguns legally and had no
prohibiting criminal record.
Next on Northam’s gun-control wish
list was a ban on commonly owned,
semi-automatic rifles. Rifles are rarely
used to commit criminal violence. FBI
data from 2017 showed there were
more homicides that year committed
with “blunt objects (clubs, hammers,
etc.)” or “personal weapons (hands,
fists, feet, etc.)” than with any kind
of rifle. A pair of DOJ-funded studies
(1997 and 2004) of the 1994 Clinton
semi-automatic ban found the measure
ineffective, with the latter noting,
“the ban’s effects on gun violence are
likely to be small at best and perhaps
too small for reliable measurement.”
A semi-automatic rifle ban would not
have thwarted the perpetrator in
Virginia Beach, since he carried out the
attack with two pistols.
Northam demanded the General
Assembly enact a “one-gun-a-month
law.” Virginia had a one-handgun-
a-month law from 1993 to 2012.
At the time the original law was
passed, it was sold by gun-control
advocates as a way to restrict gun
trafficking from Virginia to New York.
In the three years before the 2012
repeal, the ATF traced 1,265 firearms
recovered in the Empire State back
to the Old Dominion. In the three
SOME LAWMAKERS
OPENLY QUESTIONED
WHETHER NORTHAM’S
HASTE WAS AS MUCH AN
ATTEMPT TO DISTRACT
FROM ONGOING
POLITICAL SCANDALS AS
IT WAS AN EFFORT TO
ENACT GUN CONTROL.
By Jason Ouimet
Interim Executive
Director, NRA-ILA
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