The Associated Press reported Monday that it’s becoming easier for non-Virginia residents to obtain Virginia gun permits by taking online classes. Virginia has been a member of reciprocity pacts – where the gun permits of one state are recognized in another – for some time, and a 2009 amendment by the Virginia General Assembly enabled Americas to complete permit training via the Internet. Together, these statutes set the framework for the now burgeoning enterprise of online courses tailored to quickly equip non-state residents with a Virginia gun permit for use in their own states. This development should be threatening to all parties concerned about the competency of potential gun owners.
In the academic sphere, a slew of articles have aired concerns regarding expanded possibilities for cheating in the online classroom. This is just as pressing an issue when it comes to a course on firearms. In fact, in 2009 then-Gov. Tim Kaine vetoed the state amendment for online gun training because he was afraid it would be easier to cheat on an online test.
There may be no need to cheat, however. Andrew Goddard, a gun control lobbyist, attested that an online firearm course he took was at a “third-grade level,” according to the Associated Press. Indeed, there is no set standard of competence that an online certifying course must demand from its customers. Instead, passing an online course is sufficient to obtain a Virginia gun permit so long as the “instructor” is state-certified – or certified by the National Rifle Association, a group known for advocating permissive gun laws.
Course difficulty, then, has no bearing whatsoever on the process of permit distribution. If anything, these websites will be incentivized to make their courses as quick and easy as possible to attract more customers. At least in the academic realm, the sort of class that is taken, and the institution hosting it, can be used to give different levels of legitimacy to a certificate received online. Not so with gun permits, which carry the same legal weight no matter the course or method.
Hence there has emerged a marketplace of sites competing to make it ever easier to obtain a gun permit. With names like onlinegunclass.com, these start-ups boast of their high passing rates, cheap prices and general haste in granting certificates. And the demand has surged to meet the supply. Although there is no formal data on the number of such certificates obtained through online courses, Virginia state police say there is a strong correlation between the increase in gun certificates issued and the rise of the Internet classes. Texas, for example, has seen a 96 percent increase in the number of nonresident gun permits obtained from Virginia since online training began. And other states with permit reciprocity to Virginia have seen comparable numbers.
It is becoming so easy to get a gun permit from Virginia that the permit itself is largely symbolic. Some may desire this. But even those who argue individuals should own guns in self-defense will admit that a gun is of no use, indeed rather dangerous, if an owner doesn’t know how to use it. If Virginia decides to give gun permits more readily than other states, that is one thing. But this scheme of online courses has created a market where those who give permits away the easiest will profit; while citizens must suffer knowing the Internet allows gun holders to be less competent than ever in memory.
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