Virginia is for Shooters

For the second time in nearly three years, Virginia is the scene of mass killings with firearms. In another horrific episode, Christopher Speight, a contract security guard with a permit to carry concealed weapons, is accused to slaughtering eight people in rural Appomattox County, including his sister, brother-in-law and a four-year-old boy. When State Police tried to corner him with a helicopter, Speight is said to have nearly shot it down.

According to media accounts, Speight, described as a low key, “Christian” man, had anywhere from 25 to 40 guns in his possession and lived to target shoot and, on occasion, hunt. He had had a concealed weapons permit for about 10 or so years, but the press says he liked the evil-looking .233 cal, AR-15 variations of the venerable M-16 assault rifle.

The media can only speculate on what triggered Speight. The Norfolk-born man who had had no previous record started acting strangely when his mother died a few years ago. He suspected that his sister and her husband, both of whom he is accused of shooting, of scheming to wrest property from him.

This might be just another horrific domestic situation, save for another horrific fact. On April 16, 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a Virginia Tech student, dressed himself up in a flak jacket and went on a campus shooting spree that resulted in 33 deaths, including his own by his own hand. Cho managed to buy guns and ammunition despite serious questions about his mental stability. He was able to arm himself without being noticed by the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which is supposed to flag criminals and the mentally ill..

It was the worst campus massacre in this country, but it didn’t seem to cause much of a dent in Virginia’s pro-gun focus. I remember blogging about the need for gun control after the Tech slaughter and I was told to “shut up” by another Bacon’s Rebellion columnist.

Now, we have a pro-gun governor, Bob McDonnell, who is a staunch defender of what he believes are Second Amendment rights of individuals to bear arms. But McDonnell is not exactly passive on the issue. As Attorney General he filed an amicus brief supporting a legal challenge to the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns, something other large urban areas have adopted to check violent crime. It seems to work.

The gun lobby has high expectations for McDonnell. On the day to honor Martin Luther King Jr., who was shot down by a gun-toting sniper in 1968, several hundred people rallied for gun rights. They want Virginia to loosen gun laws to allow people to carry handguns in more places and make access to them easier. They are backing about 30 bills that would let one buy more than a gun a month, allow concealed handguns in bars if the toter doesn’t drink booze and prohibit businesses from banning legal handguns from cars parked in company lots.

Del. Charles Carrico wants the state to ban federal authority over guns made and sold in Virginia, giving them some kind of special Old Dominion stamp of approval.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not totally against guns. I got my one and only weapon when I was 11 or 12 and lived in the country where all boys had to to have guns. It is a Savage 63, single action, bolt .22 cal. with a Mannlicher stock. It is still in my closet although I haven’t fired it since the early 1970s when I took out a cottonmouth in Carolina with a head shot.

I don’t mean to be flip. Virginia can’t shed this crazy gun love. Speight seems to be a stunning example of the love of gunpowder and bullets that the atmosphere in this state helps foster.

But there’s a price to pay for going easy on firearms. Ask the families of the 32 at Tech or the eight in Appomattox.

Peter Galuszka