Sen. Tim Kaine Visits VA High School To Address Gun Violence

ARLINGTON, VA — U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia met with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington on Monday to discuss gun violence and legislative measures that the senator hopes will be adopted to avoid another mass shooting like the one that happened at Robb Elementary School in Texas on May 24.

Kaine told the high school students that if it is possible to pass gun regulations in Virginia, home of the National Rifle Association, then there is a chance enough Republicans in the Senate could vote for certain types of gun violence prevention measures.

“If we can do it in the NRA headquarters state, we can do it in the Senate,” Kaine told reporters after speaking to students at Wakefield. “It’s not happening as fast as I would want. It took us 13 years in Virginia to make the changes after the Virginia Tech shooting [in 2007], but we eventually did.”

The NRA is in a much weaker position today after going through a bankruptcy and various leadership scandals, according to Kaine. "They are financially strong, but they’re not strong on the Hill in terms of drafting stuff," he said.

Both Kaine and his fellow Virginia senator, Mark Warner, are pushing Congress to enact a series of gun violence prevention measures similar to those adopted by the Virginia General Assembly in 2020.

The senators’ Virginia Plan to Reduce Gun Violence Act includes provisions to close current background check loopholes, mandate reporting of lost and stolen firearms, prevent children from accessing firearms, and implement a one-handgun-a-month policy. Kaine also supports legislation to close the Charleston loophole, which allows gun sales to proceed even if a background check is not completed after 72 hours.

In 2020, former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed an "extreme risk protective order," also known as a "red flag" law, which allows for the temporary removal of firearms from people deemed to be at high risk of harming themselves or others. Virginia joined 19 other states and Washington, D.C., in having passed some type of "red flag" law.

The Virginia General Assembly also gave localities the authority to ban guns inside their facilities and parks, which many localities in Northern Virginia implemented.

Kaine said he is hoping that progress can be made on gun legislation before the Senate goes on recess on June 27. Congress is once again facing pressure to act on gun violence after another mass shooting at a school. In Uvalde, Texas, 19 students and two teachers were killed by an 18-year-old gunman in their classrooms two weeks ago.

“This is the best opportunity we’ve had since April of 2013 for a very tragic reason. But attention is ... on us. I hope we don’t let people down," Kaine said.

In April 2013, a bill that would have expanded background checks to most gun sales was defeated in Congress. The gun bill emerged less than four months after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six adults dead.

Kaine told reporters that he doesn't believe it will be hard to win the votes of conservative Democrats Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.

In the aftermath of the school massacre in Uvalde, Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican senator from Texas, has shown he may be open to supporting gun legislation in Congress. "The key is how many other Republicans we can get to vote for a reasonable package," he said.

Kaine, who was governor of Virginia when a student killed 32 people and injured 17 others at Virginia Tech in 2007, said it's sad that he once again is talking to high school students about gun violence.

"It does compound the feeling of a wound that will never heal to know that not only is there another shooting, but Congress hasn’t acted in a meaningful way," he said.

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