Still a Hot Topic

By Candice Nelson
WSLS10 Reporter
Published: March 23, 2008

Hundreds of people lined up at the Roanoke Valley Gun Show this weekend. Shows like these are still a hot topic since the General Assembly voted not to close the so-called gun show loophole, which would have required background checks for gun sales at these shows.
To Steven Elliott, a gun show spokesman, there is no loophole.
“There’s nothing that takes place in a gun show that can’t take place anywhere else. A legal sale in a gun show is a legal sale anywhere,” said Elliott.
Elliott says there are so many gun regulations, they don’t need anymore laws. As far as guns used in crimes, Elliott claims 0.7% of guns used in crimes are from gun shows.
“That leaves 99.3% of them came from other places,” he said.
Elliott said after the Virginia Tech tragedy on April 16th, he knew gun shows would be scrutinized. However, he didn’t really think the gun show loop hole would be closed.
But some think it should be.
Garry Goad said, “As long as people can legally get by with that without someone slamming them down immediately, somebody can always get a firearm. So they need to close as many loopholes as they can.”
Others wonder if any law would do any good.
“We’re spending a lot of time worrying about issues and worrying about laws that really are not going to prevent people who want the guns in the first place, assuming the ones we don’t want to have the guns are the bad guys,” said Robert Preddy.
But Elliott said he’s not the bad guy in this situation.
“If they put a requirement that the show promoters are responsible for everything that goes on in this room, we would never get insurance, never ever,” said Elliott.
But for now, this gun show will continue to do business in Roanoke, loophole or not.