NORFOLK, Va. — The gun control debate is once again in the national spotlight following the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
Policy experts said that gun reform in Virginia, however, would be an uphill battle from both sides of the political aisle.
“One of the things that creates some difficulties is the inconsistency is the laws across states," Ben Melusky said, an assistant professor of political science at Old Dominion University.
During the 2020 General Assembly session, former Gov. Ralph Northam, backed by an all-Democrat General Assembly body, passed several gun reform laws including expanded background checks, "red flag" laws, purchasing limits and more.
Republicans now control the governor's office and the House of Delegates, but Democrats still hold a slight majority in the State Senate. This, Melusky said, creates an impasse preventing both parties from passing comprehensive gun reform efforts.
“When Gov. Northam had control of both the House and Senate, a lot of those measures were advanced through. They really pushed the envelope, asort of landslide movement. But since then, with the legislative change with the Governor’s mansion and House now in control from Republicans, it really is an uphill battle for any gun movement at all, pro or against," Melusky said.
The political science assistant professor referenced two failed bills in particular that demonstrated the difficulty of moving the needle: SB310, which aimed to tackle ghost guns, and HB1306, which aimed to create possessing a firearm without a proper serial number a Class1 misdemeanor.
In the case of HB1306, Melusky said it didn't pass even with bi-partisan support.
"The bill had support of Republicans, Democrats, and the National Rifle Association. But due to inconsistencies in both versions of the bill, they couldn’t resolve them, so it died. But it had broad support," Melusky said.
More guns are being bought, even though Virginia's true gun ownership isn't exact
Senior Lecturer Aaron Karp with Old Dominion University said that based on the research conducted through the Small Arms Survey, more and more guns are being bought in the United States.
“It's getting close to a situation where America, the country with 4% of the world’s population, has almost half of the world's firearms,” he said.
According to Karp, gun buying increased by roughly 30 to 40% since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Registering a gun is not required in the Commonwealth of Virginia, making true gun ownership levels difficult to pinpoint overall.
“Data gets accumulated at the federal level, but we don’t know much about the state level because there is no Virginia registration system," Karp said.