HEADLINE: CAPITOL NOTEBOOK: VIRGINIA'S POLITICAL LEADERS WINED AND DINED BY NRA
Published: Sunday, November 22, 1998
Section: State
Page: B1
By DAVID LERMAN Daily Press

When the National Rifle Association decided to ``Celebrate Virginia," Virginia's political leaders came running.

The NRA, based in Fairfax County, opened the doors of its posh national headquarters Monday evening to show off its National Firearms Museum and highlight its Virginia collection.

The gun display features everything from a LeMat revolver - similar to one used by Gen. J.E.B. Stuart during the Civil War - to the Anschutz Model 54 used by Virginia resident Launi Meili to win a gold medal in shooting at the 1992 Olympics.

Gov. Jim Gilmore, an NRA member who stars in his own print advertisement for the political lobby, emerged from a personal tour of the museum with words of praise.

"The firearms are just beautiful," Gilmore said. "It's a wonderful display. All American history is displayed here."

Maybe not all, exactly. Notably absent from the museum, at least in the eyes of critics, is any hint of the leading role that guns have played in crime - or the toll of gun-related deaths that plagues so many U.S. cities.

In the world of the NRA, guns mean "freedom," as Executive Director Wayne LaPierre put it.

"This museum is a celebration of the tools that have helped secure our existence as a free people," Gilmore said. His campaign last year was fueled partly by thousands of dollars in NRA contributions and a personal appearance by actor Charlton Heston, NRA's president.

In his ad, Gilmore - clad in an open-necked flannel shirt with gun in hand - touts a Richmond program called Project Exile, which imposes a mandatory five-year prison sentence for felons caught carrying a gun.

"I'm the NRA," the governor says in the ad.

At an elegant reception where guests munched on shrimp and fruit, Gilmore was joined by Lt. Gov. John Hager and Attorney General Mark Earley. All three are Republicans.

Even Democratic U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb, a supporter of gun control, made a low-key appearance.

"It's the first time I'd been invited," Robb said. "I think they may have been as intrigued by my acceptance of their invitation as I was intrigued to get it."

Robb voted for a ban on assault weapons and for the Brady-bill waiting period on handgun purchases. He said he wasn't about to change his views on gun control. He simply wanted to take in a "first-rate" museum, he said, and keep open all channels of political communication.

"I meet with all kinds of people, even those with whom I am most vocally opposed," he said.

But advocates of tougher gun control could only marvel at the power of the NRA to woo the state's most prominent politicians.
"We don't have their money or their clout," said Michael Rau, spokesman for Virginians Against Handgun Violence, which has 600 members statewide. "The NRA exerts power grossly out of proportion to its public support, based solely on the amount of money it pumps into the political system. "And the way the system is now, I don't know that politicians have any choice but to be responsive."

Robb faces re-election in 2000. He said the NRA would be an "unlikely source" for campaign funds, given his stand on gun control. But he declined to rule out the possibility: "I really don't want to get into any prejudgment of campaign contributions."

POLITICAL CYNICISM 101. Hampton businessman Robert Perkins got an unwelcome taste of party fund-raising tactics recently that didn't exactly help restore his trust in the political system.

After contributing $50 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, Perkins received an "urgent fax" from House Speaker Newt Gingrich telling him he won a "national leadership award."

A news release prepared by the party committee says Perkins got the award "for serving as co-chairman of the Committee's Business Advisory Council," an honorary title apparently given to some party donors.

"It looked to me that it was an ego trip they tried to put me on," Perkins said. "I don't have an ego problem. If that's politics, it's dirty, disgusting stuff to me. I guess I'm turning into a cynic."

The Republican committee did not return a call seeking comment.

TEPID PRAISE. Rep. Herbert H. Bateman, R-Newport News, offered only cautious support for the new GOP House leaders elected Wednesday by secret ballot.

Bateman, who has tried to steer a centrist course between his party's revolutionary-minded conservatives and moderate pragmatists, declined an interview request after the vote. He issued a terse statement saying, "I'm not unhappy or distressed with anyone elected in the leadership today. The people elected will serve the Republican Party and the American people well."

QUIP OF THE WEEK. "I have a surly bunch of Republicans," said House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., at the impeachment hearing on President Clinton.

"Do you feed them?" asked Rep. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Copyright 1998, Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

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