Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, February 9, 1993 TAG: 9302090041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
VA. ACTION CALLED TEST OF U.S. WILL
Long a stronghold of the National Rifle Association, Virginia now appears poised to enact significant handgun controls, signaling a national political shift, say advocates of tighter gun restrictions."It's a big victory," said Mike Beard, president of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, a Washington-based gun-control group. "But in Virginia, it's nothing short of a miracle."
The passage of some type of limit on handgun purchases in the Virginia legislature seemed all but certain after Monday's House vote for a one-gun-a-month limit and a Senate committee vote for for a compromise promoted by Gov. Douglas Wilder and Republicans.
The NRA, traditionally one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Virginia, is fiercely opposing both bills. Whichever one finally passes will represent an NRA defeat with national implications, gun-control advocates said.
"This is happening at the back door of Congress," said David Weaver, the Richmond lobbyist for Handgun Control Inc. "The former capital of the Confederacy is sending a message to Washington that you can pass the Brady Bill [which calls for a waiting period for handgun purchases] without fear of retribution."
Weaver said one of the most important indications of a change in the Virginia climate is that the NRA has been shut out of negotiations over gun bills this year. In past years, he noted, the NRA has been a major architect in crafting compromises on gun legislation it could not stop outright.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, appeared almost ready to concede defeat Monday, although he remained eager to argue against the merits of the gun-purchase restriction.
"One gun a month isn't the right idea," he said. "Common sense tells you that criminals are going to sleep real well tonight."
LaPierre asserted that the popularity of gun-control legislation reflects national sentiment "that the violent-crime problem is out of control. Citizens across the country are scared, more scared every day, and people are grasping for solutions."
"Grasping at gun control isn't going to solve the problem," he said. "We need to fix a criminal justice system that has crashed, but nobody wants to address that. They say we don't have the money."
Some veteran watchers of gun-control battles warned that it may be too soon to claim the NRA has lost Virginia.
"You have to wait and see what the repercussions are," said William Schneider of the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "What I've seen in poll after poll through the years is that people who favor gun control don't care enough to vote on the issue, but it's the minority gun owners and NRA members who will vote it."
What's now working in favor of gun-control forces, Schneider said, is the strong-arm tactics used by the NRA.
"Politicians don't like to be threatened and they deeply resent the NRA. So a situation like this reflects the tremendous temptation to defy the NRA and vote against them. That works up until the threats get serious, and then the politicians often attempt to undo what they did."
That happened in New Jersey following a 1990 legislative vote to ban sales of assault weapons - a vote that Handgun Control terms "without a doubt the NRA's biggest state legislative loss in history." Republicans gained control of the legislature soon after and have been working to water down or repeal the law, Schneider said.
Gun-control advocates say the Virginia purchase restrictions would constitute a victory on the order of their New Jersey triumph and a similar ban on assault-weapon sales passed in California in 1989.
"The most important feature to me is that the economic community has weighed in on this debate," Beard said. "The business interest in this legislation is a major step forward."
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1993