CHARLESTON – Here in West Virginia, we value firearms as a means of protecting our rights, our property, and the safety of our families, especially in rural communities. A deep appreciation for the Second Amendment is part of our heritage and has a long-standing tradition within our state.
As the country has begun to normalize over the past few months, after nearly a year of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a disturbing resurgence of mass shootings across the country. In response, Congress has already begun discussing ways to address the issue, and with Democrats holding both Congress and the White House, the passage of some form of gun control legislation seems inevitable.
Republicans in Washington, including Senator Shelley Moore Capito, must fight to ensure that the Senate focuses on closing loopholes in existing gun laws, and ensuring they are being effectively enforced, rather than creating new laws that will make it more difficult for law-abiding Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights.
Capito
The most sensible way to achieve this is by supporting background checks for all commercial firearm sales. Currently, in order to ensure that a potential buyer is not legally prohibited from owning a gun, federal law requires that licensed dealers conduct background checks. However, federal law does not require unlicensed sellers to do the same. This glaring loophole means that people with dangerous histories and ill intent can still purchase firearms.
This loophole has resulted in some horrific tragedies. In 2019, in Midland and Odessa, Texas, a shooter killed seven people and wounded 25 more. The man had been previously denied a rifle by a licensed dealer, after a background check was conducted and the dealer found he was legally prohibited from owning a gun. However, the shooter went on to obtain his weapon from a stranger who was selling guns online through a website that allows unlicensed sellers to post ads of guns for sale that do not require a background check.
Back in 2014, a similar tragedy struck in our own backyard, when four people were shot and killed in Morgantown, West Virginia. The shooter, who had multiple felony convictions, was legally prohibited from possessing a firearm, but purchased one from a stranger he met online because the law did not require the unlicensed seller to conduct a background check.
This loophole that allows bad guys to buy guns is not only leading to the horrific tragedies we’ve seen in the news, but it is causing irreparable harm to the image of proud, lawful gun owners across America who are legally exercising their right to protect themselves and their families.
As a staunch supporter of our constitutional rights, protecting law-abiding gun owners and defending the Second Amendment for West Virginians is something that Senator Capito has taken seriously. Her reintroduction of the Lawful Interstate Transportation of Firearms Act in February of this year, which sought to protect travelers transporting firearms across state lines, is just the most recent demonstration of this support.
Given her history on this issue, I am hopeful that Senator Capito and other Republican members of Congress who are long-time champions of the Second Amendment, will choose to support background checks, so that we as a nation can keep guns out of the hands of criminals while continuing to protect the Second Amendment rights that are so important to both the state of West Virginia and our nation as a whole.
Wilson is a Charleston attorney.
