By Jason Wheeler, Reporter
Last Updated: Wednesday, April 13, 2011 11:59 AM

DELAND --  The issue of gun control comes to Central Florida today, as a national campaign to strengthen background checks literally rolls into the area.

An organization made a few stops in Central Florida, including one city where two teenagers were shot within weeks of each other.

It's called the Fix Gun Checks campaign, begun by a national organization called the Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

DeLand City Commissioner Vonzell Johnson is glad to have them in town.

He's been helping kids in the city for a number of years, and the recent death of Calvin Nealy Jr. has pushed him to speak my loudly about the issue.

Johnson, who also heads a mentoring organization for Volusia County youth, admits gun control is about his pay-grade, but supports tougher background checks, including registering all gun sales, something this campaign promotes.

But in nearby Orange City, Dale Wehr owns Central Florida Gun and Pawn.

A lifelong member of the National Rifle Association, he echoes the organizations objections over toughening registrations.

Both men point to the shootings in DeLand to make a point.

“They did not meet the requirements of the law to be in possession of a firearm in the first place. It was against the law for them to have those firearms and accidental shootings occurred as a result of that. So another law that makes something else illegal does not mean it will stop the killing,” Wehr said.

“There are no concrete solutions. So will it have necessarily stopped it? Maybe not. But will it allow us to maybe decrease the amount of guns that are getting in the hands of everyone?," Johnson said.

Fix Gun Checks' rolling billboard is rolled in to the Chisholm Center, and Johnson to met with group member Omar Samaha, whose sister was shot and killed in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre.

This year, Samaha has been driving across the country in a truck displaying the number of Americans murdered with guns since January's shootings in Tucson, Arizona -- now over 3,200.

Johnson, who is also the executive director of a boy's mentoring group in DeLand, helped organize a rally a week ago against gun violence.

That rally also served as a public memorial for Nealy, who was shot and killed outside his DeLand home on April 2. Two weeks earlier, a 13-year-old boy was accidentally injured by another teen who was playing around with a gun.

The commissioner also plans to follow the group to Orlando for a rally at City Hall Plaza at 4:15 p.m. Wednesday.

Fix Gun Checks is sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. The organization's goal is to reform gun laws so that the names of people who should not be allowed to buy a gun is in a national background system, and then require background checks for every gun sale in the country, with no exceptions.