Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, November 8, 1993 TAG: 9311080050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARGARET EDDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
Big loser No. 2? Gun control.
To the extent that perception is reality in politics, Terry's position at the helm of the movement for a five-day waiting period on handgun buys means that the issue - on the state level - may have capsized with her.
Just as every other Democratic politician in the state was scrambling to get aboard the gun-control boat after the legislature passed the gun-a-month bill last winter, so now may many be swimming back to the dock.
The National Rifle Association is justifiably elated. "Both gun-control advocates and criminals took it on the chin," exulted Chuck Cunningham, the NRA's longtime Richmond lobbyist.
And Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the organization, vowed to take the NRA's campaign for tougher sentencing and parole standards to the 50 states with renewed vigor.
The Virginia outcome, coupled with the defeat of New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio, who shepherded that state's assault-weapon ban, "is going to change national politics in the way people think about crime and the gun issue," he said.
Meanwhile, members of Virginians Against Handgun Violence - the state's fledgling gun-control lobby - were understandably deflated by the results. A midweek meeting in South Hampton Roads was postponed to give members time to assess the damage.
And Dick Parise of Portsmouth, who last year served as the first president of the organization, was the dejected counterpoint to Cunningham. "I think we got clobbered," he said. "We'd made such wonderful progress, and we were so high."
All is not lost for Parise, however. Virginians Against Handgun Violence can look to one of their own for the seeds of an answer to the question, "Where do we turn now?"
Last week, national spokesmen for the gun-control lobby were busily spinning the story that the election was no setback. Florio, who presided over a record-high tax increase, was saved from an election blowout by his work on guns, they said. And Terry's loss was in spite of, not because of, her gun position, the line went.
Alice Mountjoy, a Norfolk homemaker, PTA activist and Parise's successor, took a different, more realistic tack - one to which the Washington crowd should pay heed. "The emphasis on reducing parole will be good. We've supported that all along," she said, acknowledging the voice of the voters.
But, she said, "it's one side of the problem."
Others, who have devoted more of their careers to analyzing political trends than has Mountjoy, were crystallizing essentially the same message last week: Gun control can be sold in Virginia, but only as part of the solution to crime.
"You have to remember that gun control is a means to an end, not an end in itself," said Paul Goldman, former state Democratic chairman and longtime adviser to Gov. Douglas Wilder. "In a package of things, of tough measures, I think people will judge the package."
Marian Tucker, political aide to House Speaker Thomas Moss, D-Norfolk, agreed. "There's a difference between just putting in a bill for a five-day waiting period and saying this is one piece of a big puzzle," Tucker said. Moss intends to continue pushing for controls on gun sales.
Few dispute that the gun-control lobby's job in Richmond became tougher after last Tuesday. A big clue to what the smart money thinks about the prospects for revival will come when Wilder acts - or doesn't - on a study he commissioned on limiting assault weapons.
If Wilder, who is planning a Senate race next year, concludes that a bill to limit those guns is too risky, Tuesday's setback will be confirmed.
Meanwhile, gun-control forces may be bolstered by two realities: Citizens, when polled, overwhelmingly favor gun control; and transforming "no parole" from slogan to reality will be complicated and costly.
To his and the NRA's credit, LaPierre recognized the price tag and said neither he nor his organization would shrink from it. "We're going to be there every step of the way saying, `Fund the system,' " he pledged.
To the extent that their shared goal is the reduction of violence in America, the NRA, the gun-control lobby, teachers' organizations, the Christian Coalition, Planned Parenthood and a host of other groups should seek common ground wherever they can find it - and applaud any success on the way.
Virginia Commonwealth University's Violence Prevention Project recently identified more than 100 separate causes of violence, from prenatal substance abuse to dim job prospects to machismo in young males.
It only makes sense that breaking the chain of violence will demand more than one solution.
\ Margaret Edds covers state politics from this newspaper's bureau in Richmond.
by CNB