http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/25/us/25guns.html?ref=us

Published: January 25, 2008

RICHMOND, Va. — Despite fervent support from families of those killed in the Virginia Tech massacre, a bill that would have required background checks of buyers at gun shows in Virginia has been defeated in a State Senate committee.

The vote, on Wednesday, signaled an end to efforts to pass gun control legislation in this session of the General Assembly. It was a blow not only to survivors of Virginia Tech’s dead but also to Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat who strongly supported the bill and whose party controls the Senate.

Seven Republicans and two rural Democrats on the Senate’s 15-member Courts of Justice Committee teamed up to defeat the measure. A committee of the Republican-controlled House rejected similar legislation last week, but the bill’s advocates had held out hope that passage in the Senate might revive prospects in the House.

Federal and Virginia laws bar felons, the mentally ill and domestic abusers from buying firearms, and require licensed gun dealers to screen out such customers through instant computerized background checks. Neither state nor federal law, however, requires background checks on people who buy from unlicensed sellers at gun shows.

Still, gun rights advocates had argued that the bill was unnecessary. “The legislation was brought about on the back of a horrible tragedy, when in reality this tragedy had nothing to do with gun shows,” said Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the National Rifle Association.

Gun rights groups pointed out that Seung-Hui Cho, who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech last April 16 before committing suicide, did not buy at a gun show the two semiautomatic weapons he used, and Mr. Arulanandam added that there was no evidence that many guns used in crimes came from gun shows.

The bill’s supporters expressed frustration at the outcome of the vote.

“It’s very difficult to see the merit in the other side’s argument, because what we are suggesting would not affect law-abiding gun owners,” said Andrew Goddard, who attended Wednesday’s committee vote and whose son Colin was shot four times by Mr. Cho but survived.

“The Second Amendment,” Mr. Goddard added, “refers to properly regulated militias, but the State of Virginia is unwilling to properly regulate armed people by keeping out the mentally ill or criminals.”