Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 2, 1990 TAG: 9003022898
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Sen. Moody "Sonny" Stallings, D-Virginia Beach, rushed from the House panel room where his gun bill was sent from subcommittee, to a Senate committee hearing. In that hearing, he moved to delay action on the death-penalty measure.
Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, an opponent of Stallings' bill, is a main supporter of the death penalty measure. Stallings' gun bill now sits in Cranwell's subcommittee, from which it may not emerge.
Even if it does, enough members of the House Courts of Justice Committee appeared reluctant about the measure so that it is likely to die there.
But the battle between Cranwell and Stallings, who last year worked together crafting a law requiring an instant background check on the purchasers of semiautomatic weapons, highlighted testy committee hearings in both the House and Senate on Thursday.
"I just need some insurance," Stallings said after the Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted to delay action on the death penalty measure by a 7-6 vote.
While not a party to the feud, the sponsor of the death-penalty measure, Del. Edgar Eck, said he knew why a vote on his bill was delayed.
"I can take it. I'm a big guy," said Eck, D-Richmond. His bill is expected to eventually emerge from the Senate panel with the help of Gov. Douglas Wilder.
Eck said Wilder has been calling senators to push the legislation, and several Wilder staffers have confirmed that the governor wants the measure passed.
But Eck, a freshman delegate, has watched his first major piece of legislation become a hostage in the Cranwell-Stallings feud for several weeks.
"It's kind of like going to the dentist to have a tooth pulled," Eck said. "The anticipation is worse than the actual pulling."
Stallings' gun measure, however, is in deep trouble, as the General Assembly faces a deadline of Monday to act on all but money bills and those in conference.
After an hour-long hearing on Stallings' bill marked by emotional testimony and some hostile questions from committee members, the House panel decided to send Stallings' bill to a subcommittee chaired by Cranwell.
Stallings' bill makes it a misdemeanor for an adult to leave a loaded gun where a child under 16 can reach it. He argues that the measure would cut down on incidents of children wounding or killing each other accidentally with loaded guns.
As he had in the Senate, where his measure passed 25-15, Stallings produced four parents whose children were accidentally killed by friends with guns.
But the meeting became testy over a procedural snag. Chairman Hardaway Marks, D-Hopewell, intended to send the bill to subcommittee.
But Cranwell, citing news stories accusing him of holding the bill hostage because of Eck's death penalty measure, told Stallings that was not his intention.
"If you want us to vote this bill up or down here . . . it's OK with me," Cranwell said.
Stallings said he preferred to bypass the subcommittee.
The committee talked about making several amendments to the bill, but did not take a vote. Cranwell then moved to kill the bill. Del. Warren Stambaugh, D-Arlington, offered a substitute motion to pass the measure.
Without the amendments, the measure was unfit, argued Del. Bernard Cohen, D-Alexandria, who asked both Cranwell and Stambaugh to withdraw their motions so the bill could be amended.
But a furious Cranwell blamed Stallings for his decision to skip the subcommittee stage.
"It wasn't me who said don't put this in subcommittee," Cranwell snapped.
Cranwell said he sees no distinction between leaving a loaded gun around and "leaving the house with two six-packs in the refrigerator and the car keys lying around."
He said he opposes criminal sanctions for "what is basically a negligent act."
Stambaugh argued that the law "says if you are a responsible adult and own a firearm, you should act responsibly." He said the legislature has written laws penalizing other negligence and this "is hardly a startling departure."
by CNB