McAuliffe to push for package of new gun restrictions

RICHMOND

Gov. Terry McAuliffe on Monday will call for a package of gun restrictions, including a renewal of the state’s one-a-month limit on handgun purchases and a requirement that private vendors at gun shows perform background checks.

McAuliffe will also propose keeping guns away from people convicted of crimes related to domestic violence and revoking concealed-handgun permits for parents who are behind on child-support payments.

McAuliffe, a Democrat, will unveil his plan during a speech in Arlington the day after the two-year anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., according to a news release.

It will be hard for him to persuade the Republican-controlled General Assembly to give up any ground on Second Amendment issues, especially as some fend off challenges from the right. But the governor is betting that the mass shootings at Sandy Hook and at Virginia Tech University in 2007 make it politically toxic for Republicans in more moderate districts to oppose the measures.

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