On Va. Tech anniversary, U.S. senators debate guns
On the sixth anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings, members of the U.S. Senate on Tuesday made their push for a bipartisan proposal that would expand background checks for firearms purchases.
Sen. Mark R. Warner, D-Va., said the measure, sponsored by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has been one of the top priorities of the victims of the 2007 massacre.
“Those families, which have talked with me repeatedly, said that, for gosh sakes, let’s at least make sure that if a tragic event takes place on a college campus somewhere in America, that there are ways that we can learn from those tragedies,” Warner said on the Senate floor as several former Virginia Tech students and faculty members watched from the galleries.
Virginians paused to remember the victims of the 2007 massacre, as the Senate continued debating a wide-ranging gun control bill, with the focus on the background check compromise struck last week between Toomey and Manchin.
Warner said his Campus Safety Act, which is embedded in the gun-control legislation, would bring together research and resources on campus safety to strengthen training and improve collaboration.
“Today, campus public safety officers are the only first responders who don’t have access to federal support to assist in sharing of best practices, relevant research and training opportunities,” Warner said.
The Campus Safety Act, which received bipartisan support in the committee markup, seeks to address the problem by consolidating scattered federal efforts into a National Center for Campus Public Safety housed within the Department of Justice.
“Both Senators Manchin and Toomey have shown courage in working together on such a difficult issue, and I support their bipartisan compromise on background checks that they proposed,” Warner said.
Sen. Timothy M. Kaine, D-Va., read the names of all the victims of the Blacksburg shooting. Kaine was governor when Seung-Hui Cho, a senior Virginia Tech, shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others in two separate attacks.
Kaine said Cho had been found mentally ill and dangerous. “Because of that adjudication he was not supposed to be able to own or purchase weapons,” he said.
“But a flaw in the background record check system kept that record from being entered into the national database, so when he decided and went to purchase the weapons, he was allowed to purchase them,” Kaine said.
Kaine also told the Senate about his failed efforts to tighten gun control legislation in Virginia after the Tech shootings.
“I later went to my legislature and tried to get them to fix the background record check by closing the gun show loophole,” Kaine said. “I not only could not convince my legislature to do it, I could not even convince a single committee to report a bill out to the floor,” he said.
Similar proposals failed in the General Assembly this year.
The current U.S. Senate proposal would have suffered a similar fate had not 68 senators voted last week to overcome a filibuster threat that would have quashed the debate on a broader gun bill.
Even if a compromise advances in the Democratic-led Senate, it is unclear how the measure would fare in the House, which is under firm Republican control.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, did not want to take a position on the proposal on Monday.
“We all want to make sure tragedies like these never happen again, and the House will review any legislation that passes in the Senate,” Cantor said.
In Richmond Tuesday, about 70 people gathered at the state Capitol for a ceremony marking the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting at Tech.
Among the speakers was Joe Samaha, whose daughter Reema was one of the 32 people killed. Samaha is president of the Virginia Tech Family Outreach Foundation, which was formed after the 2007 shooting rampage to promote campus safety.
“Our charge has been that no other family would have to walk in our shoes,” Samaha said. “We hold the answer to safer schools and colleges and campuses within us, as a community.”
Meanwhile, some other parents of Virginia Tech shooting victims joined state Sen. Ralph S. Northam, D-Norfolk, a candidate for nomination for lieutenant governor, in calling for tougher gun control laws in Virginia, including universal background checks and bans on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling also addressed the crowd at the state Capitol, and a bell tolled once for each of the Virginia Tech victims.
At Virginia Tech Tuesday, the Corps of Cadets and representatives of the student body lit a candle at midnight that was to remain burning for 24 hours, and a community picnic was held at the student center.
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