Virginia's Crime Commission will study the issue of private sales at gun shows -- but already has made clear it will not issue any legislative recommendations as a result of its findings.

That has upset some of the usual suspects in the gun-control wars, including those who favor closing an ostensible loophole. What good, they ask, is a study without recommendations? The question assumes the study would reach the same conclusions they already have. But what good is a study whose outcome is known in advance? An unbiased study very well might refute arguments in favor of tighter restrictions.

For instance, the commission hopes to find out (a) how many guns sold at gun shows are sold by individuals who do not have a federal firearms license, and (b) how many of the guns from that pool are then used in crimes. What if it turns out that only a tiny fraction of them are? The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives reports, for instance, that 57 percent of the guns used in crimes are sold by 1 percent of gun dealerships.

An honest study might help clear up some common misconceptions. Even Del. David Albo, the chairman of the commission, says he doesn't understand "why one person who sells guns has to be federally licensed and another person doesn't. And I imagine no one else in the House of Delegates does, either."

That's easy: Just as not all vendors at gun shows sell guns (some sell knives, books, gun safes, tasers, T-shirts, bumper stickers, and other paraphernalia), not all the gun sellers are in business. Some people at gun shows bring a weapon or two from their private collection to sell or trade. They are no more "gun dealers" than a person who sells his car through the Auto Trader is a "car dealership." Such non-commercial sales might merit background checks, but requiring a federal dealer's license is absurd.

So are the remarks of Del. Kenneth Melvin of Portsmouth, who gripes, "It might as well be the public policy in Virginia that if you're not a convicted felon, we want you armed to the teeth." Open hostility to the self-defense rights of law-abiding citizens offers a bracing reminder that those who grow complacent about their liberty are printing a license for others to steal it.