Caffeinated Politics

The horrifying events at Old Dominion University this week didn’t happen in a vacuum. They were the predictable result of a system that treats gun access as an afterthought rather than a responsibility.

A Virginia man, previously investigated for possible firearms crimes, sold a stolen handgun to the convicted ISIS supporter, who then used it during his deadly rampage at Old Dominion University.

Kenya Chapman, who lives in Smithfield, was accused of selling a firearm without a license — allegedly providing the weapon used by Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, who opened fire on a classroom of ROTC students at ODU on Thursday.

When a Virginia man—already investigated for possible firearms crimes—can still get his hands on a stolen handgun and then sell it to a convicted ISIS supporter, something fundamental is broken. This isn’t just a loophole; it’s a canyon-sized failure in oversight. And the cost of that failure was paid in blood on a college campus that should have been a place of safety, not a battleground.

Law enforcement agents served a search warrant at Chapman’s home and “located .22 caliber ammunition consistent with the firearm recovered from the ODU shooting,” according an affidavit by ATF Special Agent Brian Gleason.

Chapman later admitted he sold a gun to Jalloh for $100 cash and even “showed agents the $100 bill provided to him by” the shooter, the affidavit said.

Chapman told ATF and FBI agents “that he stole the aforementioned firearm in Newport News, Virginia, approximately a year prior to the ODU shooting from a vehicle,” Gleason added.

Jalloh “committed a shooting at Old Dominion University, in Norfolk, VA using a Glock 44 .22 caliber firearm with a partially altered serial number,” the court papers said.

Federal prosecutors said the gun sold to Jalloh by Chapman was the one used at ODU.

What this case (once again) exposes is the dangerous myth that our current gun laws are “enough.” They clearly aren’t. If someone with a documented history of suspicious firearm activity can still traffic a stolen weapon, then the system is not protecting the public; it’s enabling the very people it should be stopping. Stronger gun control laws are about preventing exactly this kind of nightmare scenario. Universal background checks, mandatory reporting of stolen firearms, and real consequences for illegal sales aren’t radical ideas. They’re basic safeguards that any functioning society should demand.

The ODU shooting shows how easily a single illegal gun can move through the cracks and end up in the hands of someone who should never have been anywhere near a weapon. It’s a chain of preventable failures: a stolen gun, an unmonitored seller, a prohibited buyer, and a campus full of unsuspecting victims. Every link in that chain could have been broken by stronger laws and better enforcement. Instead, we’re left with another tragedy that politicians will lament publicly while refusing to fix the policies that allowed it to happen.

We can keep pretending that these incidents are isolated, unforeseeable acts of evil, or we can acknowledge the obvious: weak gun laws create the conditions for violence. They make it easy for dangerous people to arm themselves and nearly impossible for law enforcement to intervene before shots are fired. The ODU case is not an argument for more thoughts and prayers; it’s an argument for action. If we’re serious about stopping this cycle, then we need gun control laws that actually control guns—especially the ones being stolen, trafficked, and sold to people who have already shown they pose a threat.

Finally, let us not forget why meaningful gun control legislation is continually thwarted in Congress.

The NRA has spent decades buying influence and bending Congress to its will, turning what should be a public‑safety conversation into a political hostage situation. Lawmakers who know full well that weak gun laws fuel tragedies like the one at Old Dominion University still refuse to act, not because the evidence isn’t clear, but because they’re terrified of losing the NRA’s blood money and endorsement. This isn’t democracy; it’s policymaking for sale. And the result is a country where even someone previously investigated for firearms crimes can funnel a stolen gun to a convicted ISIS supporter without the system stopping him. When an industry lobby holds that much power, the public pays the price.