• Late on Friday, Virginia's House Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety voted 15-6 to repeal the state's one-handgun-a-month law, which was enacted in 1993 when the governor at the time alleged that Virginia had become a "major source of gun-running."
• House Bill 49 is expected to clear the House of Delegates, which has a Republican majority, although its chances in the Democratic-led Senate are said to be uncertain.
• Virginia's current Republican Governor Bob McDonnell said he would sign the repeal, despite voting for the law in 1993 when he was a member of the House of Representatives.
• The Republican sponsor of the repeal bill argues that the law is no longer needed because there are federal checks in place now that didn't exist in 1993, and that "one gun a month does not stop crime. Criminals who are inclined to break the law don't obey this one."
• Public comments were made by a father whose son was wounded by the Virginia Tech gunman in 2007, who stated that “the one-gun-a-month law has succeeded in taking Virginia from No. 1 in the country as the supplier of guns used in crimes to No. 6.”
• Last year, New Jersey became the fourth state to limit handgun purchases to one a month, joining California, Maryland, and Virginia (South Carolina’s law was repealed in 2004.)
• Virginia currently has over 1,600 licensed firearms dealers, which sold 19,500 handguns last year (about 40% of all the state's gun sales.)