FCDC Resolution Against Gun Violence
At the regular FCDC meeting on Tuesday, May 27th, the attending membership passed the following resolution unanimously:
WHEREAS, the Democratic Party in its 2004 national platform stated that it will protect Americans’ Second Amendment right to own firearms; keep guns out of the hands of criminals and terrorists by fighting gun crime; and close the gun show loophole, as President Bush proposed and failed to do; and
WHEREAS, 32 students and faculty died by gunfire in the worst mass murder in American history by a single killer, using a Walter-22 and a Glock with a 15-round magazine, at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia on April 16, 2007; and
WHEREAS, five of the students who died were from Fairfax County; and
WHEREAS, two police officers were gunned down at Sully District Police Station in Fairfax County by a mentally ill young man on May 8, 2006; and
WHEREAS, 888 Virginians died by firearms in 2005 and 812 in 2006, and many more were wounded; and
WHEREAS, the physical and psychological cost to families, communities, and the state is incalculable; and
WHEREAS, despite the recommendations of the Virginia Tech panel, the General Assembly failed to pass a law this past session requiring background checks for private sellers at gun shows even though common sense dictates that background checks be conducted before gun sales by a private seller at a gun show in order to insure that the buyer is not a terrorist, convicted felon, under a court order or deemed dangerous to himself or society;
We, the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, hereby resolves that the Virginia State Democratic Party in its 2008 platform should (1) support Virginia legislation requiring that at gun shows, private sellers must conduct background checks for gun sales; and (2) promote other common sense gun legislation.
