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Virginia Tech shooting victim Colin Goddard speaks in support of legislation to close the 'gun show loophole' Monday in Richmond.

People who support closing the gun show loophole lie on the Capitol lawn in Richmond.

RICHMOND -- In an overcrowded hearing room and on the grounds of the state Capitol, parents and friends of Virginia Tech shooting victims made passionate appeals Monday for legislation requiring background checks for all firearms purchases made at gun shows.

Gun rights advocates were equally adamant, urging lawmakers to reject new firearms regulations and instead give eligible college students and faculty the ability to carry concealed weapons on state campuses.

The philosophical clash reached its crescendo during an afternoon rally just below the Capitol, where gun control supporters chanted, "Now, now, now!" and opponents tried to shout them down with cries of "Never, never, never!"

The competing demonstrations occurred as a committee considered Senate Bill 109, which would close the so-called "gun show loophole" and require private sellers to conduct the same criminal background checks on buyers that licensed dealers must perform. Gov. Tim Kaine is pushing for the legislation, and parents of some Tech shooting victims are joining the effort.

But Kaine faces a tough battle winning support for the measure, sponsored by Sen. Henry Marsh, D-Richmond. A House of Delegates committee rejected similar legislation Friday. And three Democrats on the Senate Courts of Justice committee have voiced concerns with a Senate bill promoted by Kaine, raising doubts about whether the governor has enough support in his own party to get the bill passed.

"I'm sympathetic to the issues, but it's unlikely the way it's drafted that it will be passed into law," said Sen. John Edwards, D-Roanoke, whose district includes Virginia Tech. He has voted against previous bills to expand background checks at gun shows.

Sen. Roscoe Reynolds, D-Henry County, said "there is no evidence that a gun show played any part in the tragedy at Tech."

Reynolds said some fear the bill aims "to put gun shows out of business," including large gun shows that occur in Hillsville, in his district.

Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath County, who has opposed similar bills in the past, said Monday that he is carefully weighing arguments on both sides of the issue.

The Senate panel held a 90-minute hearing on the bill Monday in front of an overflow crowd that filled a hearing room and spilled into a lobby area of the General Assembly office building. The committee will vote on the bill Wednesday.

Seung-Hui Cho, a mentally ill Tech student, killed 32 people and himself on the Blacksburg campus April 16 with guns he purchased from licensed firearms dealers. Information about an involuntary treatment order from a Montgomery County special justice was never entered into a federal database used to conduct the instant records checks. Kaine has since issued an executive order to close that loophole.

Kaine, as well as current and former Virginia State Police officials, argue that Cho still could have avoided a background check by seeking out an unlicensed seller at a gun show.

Peter Read of Annandale, father of slain Tech student Mary Karen Read, told the committee that the gun issue is more difficult than the mental health reforms lawmakers also are pursuing in response to the shootings.

"It requires profiles in courage from every single one of you, and I will not back off on that," he said.

Supporters, including a group of Tech students and Blacksburg residents who traveled to the Capitol by bus, wore yellow stickers that read "Close the Gun Show Loophole." Opponents, some carrying holstered guns, sported orange stickers that read "Guns Save Lives."

Large crowds on both sides of the debate later gathered on the Capitol grounds, where more than 100 demonstrators lay on the ground in a silent tribute to victims of gun violence. Gun rights advocates formed a semicircle around the demonstrators and defiantly turned their backs on them while holding aloft signs bearing slogans such as "Here Lies Unarmed Victims" and "Self-Defense Is A Basic Human Right."

At one point, a gun rights advocate told Tech shooting survivor Colin Goddard that Cho may have been stopped if students with concealed carry permits were allowed to carry guns on the Tech campus.

"I would have stopped him," said Jeff Knox, director of operations for the Manassas-based Firearms Coalition. "When I went to school, I carried a gun. It was legal."

Goddard, a senior who was shot four times in Norris Hall, replied: "I feel sorry for you, the fact that you feel you need to protect yourself in every situation."

Goddard said he believes most Tech students support efforts to expand criminal background checks at gun shows and to keep weapons off of campus.

"Most of the people I interact with don't really approach me and say, 'We should have guns on campus,' " Goddard said. "They know the position I've been in and they wouldn't say something like that to me. The school generally has a view that that's not something they want. They want the school to remain a safe campus. If people are exposed to something that kills them, increasing their exposure to that same thing doesn't generally decrease the number of deaths, I don't think."

Ken Stanton, Tech's leader for Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, also was on the Capitol grounds. Stanton, a doctoral candidate, said he merely wants Tech students and faculty to have the same rights as off-campus visitors with concealed-carry permits.

"Those who are there every day don't have the same rights," Stanton said.

The Tech shootings have brought an emotional charge to the long-running debate over the gun show legislation.

"It's impossible not to be affected by the emotion," Deeds said.

During Monday's committee hearing, Suzanne Grimes, mother of shooting survivor Kevin Sterne, held up a front page of The Roanoke Times with a picture of her wounded son being carried from Norris Hall.

"He faced death, witnessed a horrific assault, and will carry the scars forever, physically and emotionally," said Grimes, who lives in Pennsylvania.

Supporters of the bill let out a sarcastic groan when Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, complained that a technical glitch with the instant background check held up a recent purchase he made at a gun show.

Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw, D-Fairfax County, interrupted Van Cleave and gestured to the family of Reema Samaha, one of the students killed in the shootings.

"How onerous do you think this whole thing's been on that family sitting right there to your left?" Saslaw asked.

Staff writer Mason Adams contributed to this report.