Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993 TAG: 9302110321
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NO QUIBBLING
A PASSEL of National Rifle Association lobbyists has slunk back to Washington in unaccustomed defeat.Though the House of Delegates and Senate have passed differing measures, this now appears certain: The General Assembly will impose limits on handgun purchases in Virginia - as a majority of citizens wants.
The remaining question - expected to be resolved in a House-Senate conference committee - is just how tough to make the new regulations, and there ought to be no quibbling: Pass the tougher House version, as originally proposed by Gov. Wilder.
It's important, not only to Virginia but to the nation, to send the strongest possible message: that the deadly profusion of violence, eased by unfettered access to handguns, must stop.
By now, it would be a done deal had Wilder not calculated, erroneously, that he needed to capitulate to Republican lawmakers to get a handgun-limit measure through the assembly. By signing off on a GOP "compromise" proposal, he set in motion the developments that led to differing versions being passed by the House and Senate.
That was a political mistake. While he still deserves much credit for taking the lead on this matter, Wilder's triumph was tarnished a little by his willingness to cave in.
Now, let's call the roll of those who made a bigger mistake - by voting against the gun-control measure.
In the House: Dels. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton; Vic Thomas, D-Roanoke; Ward Armstrong, D-Martinsville; Tommy Baker, R-Radford; Creigh Deeds, D-Warm Springs; Thomas Jackson, D-Hillsville; Joan Munford, D-Blacksburg; Lacey Putney, I-Bedford; Roscoe Reynolds, D-Martinsville. Shame on them all.
Del. Willard Finney, D-Rocky Mount, originally opposed it but, on the final House vote, wised up and joined Dels. Steve Agee, R-Salem, and Chip Woodrum, D-Roanoke, in voting yes. Good for them.
In the Senate, the naysayers included Sens. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, and Bo Trumbo, D-Fincastle. Voting yes on the compromise proposal were Sens. Brandon Bell, R-Roanoke, and Madison Marye, D-Shawsville.
Whatever excuses they may offer, legislators who voted the wrong way on this issue were, in effect, voting against law enforcement. Major law-enforcement organizations in Virginia have strongly supported Wilder's original proposal as passed by the House.
In siding with the gun lobbyists, the naysayers not only denied the public interest; they misread public sentiment. Virginia is ready for enactment of Wilder's gun-control proposal.