Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 22, 1993 TAG: 9302220245
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GUN CONTROL
VIRGINIA'S Republican legislators have cause to cry foul over a recent attempt by a Democratic Caucus official to depict GOP lawmakers - but only GOP lawmakers - as the bad guys in the General Assembly's shootout over gun control.After Gov. Wilder's proposal to limit handgun sales to one a month came up for floor votes recently, the Democrats' fax machines quickly churned out releases blasting three Republicans who voted no.
Typical was the attack on Del. Peter Way, R-Albemarle. A press release quoted Kevin Mack, executive director of the Virginia Democratic Caucus:
"It doesn't surprise me that Peter Way voted with the National Rifle Association. The NRA was one of the biggest contributors to his last campaign. I guess once Delegate Way is bought, he stays bought, no matter how reasonable the legislation . . . . Del. Way, as usual, has aligned himself with extremist special-interest groups, like the NRA and the KKK."
Mack has a point - that legislators opposing Wilder's bill sided with gun lobbyists against the general good. But this is not a partisan issue. Wilder's proposal has had high-visibility support of Republican U.S. Sen. John Warner, former Republican Govs. Linwood Holton and Mills Godwin, and Republican U.S. Attorney Richard Cullen. Moreover, the GOP legislative caucus made an unprecedented effort to ensure passage of some limits on handgun purchases.
Not all Republican lawmakers support Wilder's original bill. Not all Republicans lawmakers support the watered down "compromise" fashioned by their caucus - and agreed to by Gov. Wilder. But surely the pooh-bahs at Democratic Caucus headquarters can count.
In the House of Delegates, 24 Republicans and 36 Democrats voted for Wilder's original proposal; 17 Republicans and 22 Democrats - including House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell of Vinton - voted against it. In the Senate, 15 Republicans and 20 Democrats voted for the GOP compromise; two Republicans and two Democrats voted against it.
A vote analysis suggests the lines were drawn primarily between urban/suburban and rural legislators - not along partisan lines.
Unquestionably, many of those who voted no are cozy with the NRA. But the mean-spirited Mack attack went a bit far, as Wilder has noted. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Hunter Andrews had the grace to take the floor of the Senate to apologize. That's more than other Democratic lawmakers or Mack himself ("they didn't hire me to be nice") have done.