BY CHELYEN DAVIS

Virginia lawmakers have resisted pressure from the governor, from gun-control advocates and from Virginia Tech victims' families to require private sellers at gun shows to run background checks on buyers.

Now a federal bill could take it out of Virginia's hands.

Rep. Frank Lautenberg, D-New Jersey, has introduced a bill to close the so-called "gun show loophole."

The "loophole" is that federally licensed gun dealers are required to run instant background checks on people buying guns, but those who are selling guns privately and are not dealers do not have to run such checks.

The background checks are intended to ensure that criminals, convicted felons, those who have been found by a judge to be mentally ill and a danger to themselves or others, and some others, are not able to purchase firearms.

In a press conference this week to announce the bill, Lautenberg was joined by some relatives of victims of the shooting at Virginia Tech two years ago. He also announced the bill a day after the 10th anniversary of the Columbine school shooting.

"There is no rational reason to oppose closing the loophole," Lautenberg said in a release. "The reason it's still not closed is simple: the continuing power of the special interest gun lobby in Washington."

Opponents of similar bills in Virginia have argued that requiring private sellers at gun shows to do background checks is a burden, and that it's a slippery slope from there to monitoring all private firearms transactions, even those not at public gun shows…

In Virginia, the issue rose to prominence after the shootings at Virginia Tech.

Although the shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, did not buy his guns at a gun show, families of victims adopted the issue, arguing that the loophole potentially allows those who should not have guns to buy them easily.

But bills to require the checks by private sellers at gun shows have failed in the General Assembly, despite the backing of Gov. Tim Kaine.

The issue resurfaced in Virginia last week, when New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg funded a TV ad aimed at Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell.

McDonnell opposes requiring private sellers to do background checks; in the ad, Omar Samaha, whose sister Reema died in the Tech shooting, urges McDonnell to support closing the loophole.

Lautenberg's bill would in part do what bills that died in the Virginia legislature would have done--require private sellers at gun shows to conduct background checks on buyers.

The bill defines a gun show as an event where 50 or more guns are for sale.

But Lautenberg's bill goes further than Virginia proposals. It would require gun show promoters to register with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and maintain a list of gun show vendors, and it would also require federally licensed dealers to keep and submit a record of each gun sold.

That record would include the gun's serial number, model and manufacturer, but not information on the seller or buyer unless the firearm was later used in a crime and traced.

Kaine, who unsuccessfully urged passage of legislation to close the loophole in Virginia, said yesterday that he generally does agree with the National Rifle Association in its argument that the government should enforce gun laws that are already on the books.

But Kaine argues that this is, in a sense, already on the books.

"There are existing laws that say felons should not be able to purchase and have weapons," Kaine said. "What the absence of background checks at gun shows means is that existing laws are not enforced."