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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 22, 1993                   TAG: 9301220422
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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NRA DOESN'T SPEAK FOR ALL GUN-OWNERS

IT IS MY hope that the state legislature will pass the bill that would limit the purchase of handguns to one a month.

I am a gun-owner, a hunter and a sportsman, and I regret the fanatical stand that the National Rifle Association has taken on this issue. The NRA appears to be siding with the gunrunners and the drug dealers.

In this, the NRA does not represent sportsmen nor the majority of the citizens of Virginia.

Virginia is dealing in blood money when we allow these gunrunners to pour these weapons into New York and Washington, D.C. The proposed gun-purchase limit is a small, simple step that may be of some help in eliminating the blood shed on our streets and playgrounds.

I hope our legislators have the courage to resist the pressures of powerful lobbies and will help to clear our streets of bloody violence. WARD L. DONAT ROANOKE

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