When Guns, Politics Mix in Virginia

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Photo of Sunday's gun awareness "lie-in," in which 32 women represented the number of shooting victims at Virginia Tech last month, by Katherine Frey/The Washington Post

IN VIRGINIA, when questions over the right to bear arms are mixed with politics, headlines are sure to follow. A case in point: New York City's Republican mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is going after gun dealers in Virginia, claiming that they are engaging in illegal gun sales and fueling crime in the nation's largest city, which has made great strides in recent years to reduce crime and violence.

The response in Virginia: Gun rights advocates are hosting events in support of the targeted gun dealers, and plan to host a raffle in Annandale next week at a Fairfax County government building. They're calling it a "Bloomberg Gun Giveaway."

Fairfax officials recognize that they can do little to stop armed Virginia gun advocates from entering the government office building since "the General Assembly won't allow local governments to ban the possession of guns in public buildings," as The Post's Tim Craig reported over the weekend.

All of this comes on the heels of the April massacre at Virginia Tech, in which a mentally unstable student purchased weapons legally before going on a campus bloody rampage, killing 32 people before fatally shooting himself. The Virginia Citizens Defense League, the organization that is sponsoring the gun raffle, supports legislation that would allow students to legally carry weapons on college campuses.

On Mother's Day over the weekend, a group of 32 women — representing the number of victims gunned down at Virginia Tech — gathered in Bethesda for a "lie-in," pictured above, that lasted just a few minutes, symbolizing the short amount of time it took the Tech shooter to purchase his guns. More from The Post's Michelle Betton.

» "Advocates to Give Away Guns to Protest Bloomberg's Lawsuits" [WaPo]
» "'Die-In' Counts the Minutes" [WaPo]