RICHMOND -- With a disability and down on his luck, former gun dealer Alfred "Speedy" Mercer decided to sell some of his firearms collection a couple of years ago to help pay the bills.

He sold some at gun shows, and as a private seller he no longer had to conduct the background checks on buyers that federally licensed dealers are required to perform.

That so-called gun-show loophole has been debated by gun advocates and opponents in Virginia for more than a decade. But on Tuesday, Republican legislators on the Virginia State Crime Commission took the debate in a new direction. Instead of focusing on whether private sellers at gun shows should be required to do the checks, they argued that legislators' time would be better spent determining whether someone such as Mercer would fit the federal definition of a private seller or a dealer.

"I'm concerned because I've read that definition three or four times now and I can't tell you whether you fit under it or not," Sen. Ken Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, told Mercer during the commission's meeting.

Federal law requires those whose "principal objective of livelihood and profit" is the sale of guns to get a federal firearms license. Those who fit the definition but do not obtain a license face federal charges.

Stolle said rather than worry about private sellers, legislators should more clearly define how many sales qualify an individual as a dealer. That way, those just trying to cash in on their investments don't run the risk of being labeled an illegal dealer.

Mercer, however, said drawing an "arbitrary line in the sand" would only hurt private sellers.

Gun shows are regulated by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Gun control proponents say Republicans are simply trying to divert attention from the real issue: finding out who the guns are being sold to.

Virginia is one of 33 states that do not require private sellers at gun shows to do background checks.