http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-10-21-0283.html
Activists square off
Both sides state their case during protest near gun show
Sunday, Oct 21, 2007 - 12:08 AM
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By BILL MCKELWAY
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Guns and death are a troublesome mix, even on the lawn of Mosby Memorial Baptist Church.
As police looked on warily, more than 50 gun-control advocates gathered for a protest, sponsored by the Virginia chapter of the Million Mom March, against a gun-sale loophole.
The loophole, which exists in a majority of states, allows private, face-to-face sales or trades of weapons without background checks.
Across Mechanicsville Turnpike, hundreds of gun enthusiasts filled The Showplace poring over the latest in weaponry, and a handful of gun-rights advocates gathered on the edge of the highway.
The pleasantries of the two camps grew somber at noon: 32 advocates of clamping down on gun-show loopholes, each signaled by a gong stroke, lay supine on the ground, symbolizing Seung-Hui Cho's 32 shooting victims at Virginia Tech on April 16.
It didn't take long for gun-show outriders to cross the street to the church yard and reach the perimeter of the lie-in protest. As TV and video cameras rolled, there was jostling for exposure among the two sets of sign-carrying advocates.
"Yes, I tried to get in the way on purpose. I have a right to state my view as much as they do," said Chesterfield County resident Paul Henick. "They can't muzzle me."
Henick, who wore a badge from the Citizen Defense League, loomed over the recumbent victims with a half-dozen other gun-rights activists. He carried a sign that stated: "This is what happens when people are denied effective means of self-defense."
"If I'm an activist, I have to be active," Henick said.
Loophole protestors were just as vociferous.
"If Virginia Tech isn't enough to change the law, I don't know what the hell is," said 79-year-old June Hazlehurst, a longtime gun-control advocate and organizer. "Pardon my language," she added.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, in an executive order after the Virginia Tech shootings, corrected language in state law that allowed Cho to purchase weapons even though he had been judged mentally ill. But gun-control advocates said yesterday that Cho still would have been able to purchase guns at gun shows from private sellers where background checks are not required.
"What we are trying to do is make people aware -- to do something visible and important to prevent the senseless killings that go on in this country from guns," said Richmond resident Andrew Goddard, whose son, Colin, survived the Tech shootings. Daughter Emma, 15, and Goodard's wife, Anne, were among those who took part in the lie-in.
"My son still carries three bullets in his leg," said Andrew Goddard, who helped lead the protest. "I don't want to do anything to prevent people from owning a weapon, but it is inexcusable that more isn't done to stop sales to people who are a danger."
Efforts to close the loophole in Virginia law have never come close to passing the General Assembly. But there will be another effort next year and Hazlehurst said the Virginia Tech tragedy may be a catalyst for passage.
Gun shows at The Showplace, said Richmond's Mosby Court public-housing resident Patricia Williford, are a sore spot.
"It sits right in the middle of the projects. We're filled with guns, with people dying, and there doesn't have to be a background check."
Henick was persistent in his defense of limited controls.
Existing gun-control laws, he argued, allowed Cho to do what he did. If guns were permitted on the Tech campus, Cho would never have lived long enough to kill his victims.
"Things would have ended a lot differently," Henick said.
Things did end differently yesterday for the supine, shoulder-to-shoulder protesters who portrayed victims of the massacre.
They were able to get up and walk away. Under the watchful eye of police.
