"Democrats criticized Fifth District Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr., R-Rocky Mount, on Monday for trying to repeal a federal law that bans gun ownership by any person convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.

Ever since Goode went to Congress in 1997, he has been sponsoring legislation to repeal the 1996 federal law that bans anyone convicted of a misdemeanor assault on his or her spouse from owning or possessing a gun.

"It runs roughshod over the rights of states and judicial discretion in assessing appropriate penalties on a case-by-case basis," Goode and former congresswoman Helen Chenoweth, an Idaho Republican, wrote in a letter to fellow representatives who opposed the Brady Handgun Violence Protection Act.

"Deciding at the federal level to establish new punishments for misdemeanors after the fact is just plain wrong," Goode and Chenoweth said in their 1997 letter. The bill now offered by Goode as chief patron, H.R. 1455, languishes in the House Judiciary Committee.

Meredith Richards, Goode's Democratic challenger on Nov. 5, said the gun law that Goode has tried unsuccessfully to repeal is similar to the law under which Virginia and Maryland sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad was arrested last Thursday.

She and Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, D-Charlottesville, said that such a federal firearms law is more helpful to police than leaving gun law restrictions against spouse abusers up to various uneven state enforcement.

Muhammad was charged in a federal arrest warrant obtained Wednesday in Seattle with violating federal law barring him from having a gun. A Washington state protective order was obtained by his spouse two years ago after a finding by a judge that Muhammad had committed a violent misdemeanor against her. The warrant charged that he violated federal law by illegally possessing a semi-automatic .223 caliber rifle.

The sniper suspect was charged under the section of the federal law banning someone subject to a protection order from possessing a gun, not the similar section that Goode is trying to overturn banning weapons possession by anyone convicted of misdemeanor spousal assault.

"I think it's ridiculous to start thinking of restricting this to the states," Van Yahres said. "A firearm or anything else can be transported across state lines. This is a good example of what could happen if it isn't a federal law."

Richards brought up her opposition to Goode's bill at a joint forum Monday in Bedford County.

"Meredith Richards is very troubled that Congressman Goode would introduce this bill that would turn back the clock," Jim Severt, her chief consultant, said late Monday.

"Hundreds of thousands of American women sleep better at night knowing that those who have threatened them are prevented from having a firearm," Severt said.

Goode and Richards could not be reached Monday night.

Erich Pratt, director of communications for Gun Owners of America, said the Virginia-based gun-rights group believes Goode is in the right. [Gun Owners of America has given Virgil Goode an "A" rating and has left Meredith Richards unrated.]

Pratt said many women and men are charged with misdemeanor domestic violence for such minor things as a wife tearing her husband's pocket in a domestic dispute or one person throwing car keys at the other in anger.

Even if the federal law in question banning guns for an assault "did apply to Mr. Muhammad, which technically it doesn't, it still wouldn't have stopped him," Pratt said. The technicality was that Muhammad was charged with violating the protection order, and because he had assaulted a spouse.

Muhammad's two years of travel with the Bushmaster rifle "shows how easily criminals can get firearms without leaving a paper trail," Pratt said." (Bob Gibson, The Daily Progress, October 29, 2002)