Sen. Tim Kaine introduces gun regulations bill

While the timing closely follows the shocking on-air shooting of a WDBJ (Channel 7) crew, U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said the idea behind a new gun bill he rolled out Tuesday reflects something he’s been ruminating on for months.

“I had a couple of epiphany moments over the summer,” said Kaine, a supporter of universal background checks who made a public appeal for action as recently as April during the anniversary of the 2007 Virginia Tech shootings.

“We just couldn’t seem to get the background records check bill over the finish line. I wondered if there was a different way to come at this.”

On Tuesday, Congress’s first day back after a long summer recess, Kaine introduced a bill to hold gun providers — both sellers and gift-givers — liable for illegal gun transfers.

Current law already makes it illegal to sell or give a gun to anyone who falls within one of several categories — including convicted felons, someone who’s been adjudicated as mentally defective or someone under a domestic restraining order.

But providers are shielded from prosecution unless they knew or had reasonable cause to believe a deal violated the law, Kaine said in a conference call with reporters.

“It’s virtually impossible to prosecute anyone under that law, because the transferor can just say, ‘Well gosh, I didn’t know,’ ” he said.

Kaine’s bill, titled the Responsible Transfer of Firearms Act, creates an affirmative responsibility for providers to take “reasonable steps” to ensure a person is legally allowed to have a gun.

The bill keeps the definition of reasonable steps open-ended. But Kaine said a number of actions might qualify, including conducting a background check — already required for sales made by federally licensed commercial dealers — or requiring that a recipient have a concealed handgun permit.

“We, all the time, insist upon responsibilities,” Kaine said. “We insist upon the responsibility of retail merchants to check and make sure the recipients of alcohol and tobacco are of age.

“We ought to put, for those who would transfer a weapon whether by sale or by gift, we ought to put on their shoulders some responsibility so they can’t just causally place a weapon in the hands of someone who’s federally prohibited from having a weapon.”

Kaine, a gun owner and self-described “proud supporter” of the Second Amendment, said the bill would apply to licensed dealers, private sellers who are part of what is sometimes referred to as the gun show loophole, and those giving a gun as a gift.

Kaine said he had little sympathy for suggestions that people giving a gun to a friend or relative should be exempt.

There should be a minimal, reasonable responsibility in all cases to ensure the law is being followed, he said. “If we do that, we’ll keep people safer.”

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun rights group, said he is wary of Kaine’s proposal.

“If Kaine says its a reasonable step, it’s not a reasonable step,” Van Cleave said. “To me, it’s just a backdoor scheme to get universal background checks.”

He said the gun-rights organization does not want any paperwork for private sales, because “it’s not the government’s business” to know what firearms an individual owns.

Kaine’s bill will likely face an uphill climb in Congress. Lawmakers rebuffed a push to expand background checks and other gun-control measures in 2013 on the heels of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

There has been little action on the issue since then, and the Senate majority shifted from Democrats to Republicans in last year’s elections.

On the state level, Democrats have pushed for more far-reaching gun control laws for years — without success. Last week, several lawmakers produced a petition with nearly 28,000 signatures supporting expanded background checks for gun buyers.

Gun rights advocates have criticized the political debate spurred by the Aug. 26 shooting of the WDBJ news crew and noted background checks weren’t a factor in the attack.

The shooter, a disgruntled former reporter, passed a background check and bought his gun legally, according to federal authorities. He killed journalists Alison Parker and Adam Ward during a live interview, and wounded Vicki Gardner of the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Kaine acknowledged his proposal wouldn’t necessarily have prevented that shooting.

“We’ll never be able to eliminate all acts of violence,” he said. “... But we can do better. We can make our commonwealth and our country safer, and that’s what this act is about.”

Alison Parker’s parents, Andy and Barbara Parker of Henry County, have made several public appeals for universal background checks and other gun control measures since the shooting. Andy Parker plans to be in Washington this week, where he’ll meet with Kaine and Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, among others.

Kaine, who was governor during the Virginia Tech shootings, said this region “knows the pain of needless gun violence all too well.”

Every time a tragedy like this happens, he said, he prays it will be a wake-up call for the nation.

“You can support the Second Amendment, but also recognize there can be reasonable limitations,” he said.