01/18
   WASHINGTON (UPI) -- The National Rifle Association will not stop
efforts to limit the sale of firearms in Virginia, Gov. L. Douglas
Wilder said in a column published Monday in the The Washington Post.
   Wilder recently endorsed a package of laws to help halt the
stream of guns from Virginia. The most controversial proposal in the
package is a measure that would limit handgun purchases to one per
month.
   The NRA says the proposal will not work because it could not stop
criminals from obtaining guns. That's because, the NRA says, 85
percent of all criminals don't purchase guns in shops.
   Wilder said the NRA's broadside against his initiative --
including $83,000 in radio advertisements and numerous full-page
newspaper ads -- consists of "misinformation and scare tactics done
in that organization's typical style.
   "Among other charges, the NRA claims that I am going to take away
gun rights and all Virginians' guns, that the 'law-abiding citizen'
is being 'penalized' unjustly by my proposals and that 'hunting will
lose forever unless NRA wins."'
   "The NRA," Wilder added, "is notorious for scaring public
officials."
      Nearly 40 percent of the weapons authorities seize in New York
City, and more than 40 percent of weapons seized in Washington,
originated from Virginia, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms says.
   "The Virginia-to-New York gun network fuels the distribution of
drugs in every community of Virginia and up the East Coast," Wilder
said. "Guns purchased in Virginia (in many cases, 25 at a time)
bring four to five times their cost on the streets of New York."
   Wilder said that for example, a Tec 9 bought in Virginia for $300
has a street price of $1,200 in New York. He said gunrunners often
use this profit to buy illegal narcotics, which they then sell in
Virginia at large multiples above cost. Thus it's possible to invest
$1 in guns in Virginia, trade the guns in New York for drugs, sell
the drugs -- and make $10 on every $1.
   "Interstates 95 and 81 -- which traverse our state's rural and
urban communities alike -- are now known as 'Iron Corridors' where
guns are ferried from Virginia to New York and drugs are backhauled
for resale in Virginia's suburbs and cities," Wilder said.
   Rectifying this problem is not only in Virginia's interest, he
said, but in the nation's interest.
   "In Virginia," he wrote, "the public is coming to understand the
close relationship of handguns and violent crime. Poll after poll
shows more than 80 percent of thepeople support reasonable
restrictions on handgun sales."
   The governor said: "For a growing number of Americans, young and
old, a new, terrifying vision of Virginia is spreading. This past
month, DC Comics published a special edition of its Batman comic
book entitled 'Seduction of the Gun.' In this issue, a fictional
gang of gun runners from Gotham City purchases caches of firearms in
Virginia because our gun laws are so slack."