RICHMOND, Va. --
Emotional pleas by relatives of Virginia Tech shooting victims failed Friday to persuade a legislative committee to close a loophole that allows criminals and the mentally ill to buy firearms at gun shows.
The House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee voted 13-9 to kill legislation that would require unlicensed sellers at gun shows to conduct criminal background checks on buyers. Such checks now are required only on transactions by federally licensed gun dealers.
Thirty-two people were killed at Virginia Tech on April 16 by a mentally disturbed student who committed suicide as police closed in.
Only a few relatives of those killed and wounded were able to attend the meeting because they had less than 24 hours notice. The committee refused to delay a vote until more family members could be there.
"Please don't say these innocent lives were lost," said Lori Haas of Richmond, whose daughter Emily was shot twice in the head but survived. "They weren't lost - they were killed by a sick person who should not have had that gun."
Gun-rights advocates who opposed the bill noted that the gunman, Seung-Hui Cho, did not buy his weapon at a gun show. He had been ruled a danger to himself during a court commitment hearing in 2005 and was ordered to receive outpatient mental health care - but he never received the treatment.
Despite the setback, the gun show loophole issue isn't dead. Similar legislation is pending in a Senate committee and supporters plan a lobbying blitz and vigil in remembrance of the Virginia Tech victims Monday on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
"We're not going to give up," Andrew Goddard, whose son Colin was wounded in the shootings, told reporters after the committee meeting. "We're going to be energized by this."
Even if the Senate votes to close the loophole, the bill's next stop would be the same House committee that moved swiftly to reject the House version before supporters of the legislation could marshal their forces.
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Associated Press Writer Bob Lewis contributed to this report.
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