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CALL THE GUY IN THIS POST AND GIVE HIM HELL!! [HOLLAND]

02/03 By Donald P. Baker Washington Post Staff Writer
   RICHMOND, Feb. 2 - Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's proposed limit on
handgun sales narrowly dodged an embarrassing symbolic setback today
when a Northern Virginia lawmaker cast a disputed vote to block a
Senate subcommittee's endorsement of a competing measure.
   The vote by Sen. Edward M. Holland (D-Arlington), chairman of the
Senate Courts of Justice Committee and the Wilder proposal's chief
legislative patron, prevented a GOP substitute to Wilder's gun
proposal from winning outright approval in the five-member
subcommittee.
   With Holland's vote against the substitute measure added to the
negative votes from the subcommittee's two Democrats, the tally was
a 3 to 3 tie, which normally would mean that the GOP bill would not
advance to the full committee. The three Republican members of the
subcommittee complained vigorously that Holland should not be
allowed to vote. He is an ex officio member of the subcommittee
because he is the full committee's chairman.
   "An ex officio member has never voted before in a subcommittee,"
Sen. Mark L. Earley (R-Chesapeake) said.
   "Everything never done before is done for the first time,"
responded the subcommittee chairman, Sen. Henry L. Marsh III
(D-Richmond).
   To salve the Republicans' ire, the panel voted to send both
Wilder's bill and the GOP alternative to the full committee without
a recommendation. The committee is expected to decide the measures'
fates on Sunday.
   Monday night, a House subcommittee endorsed Wilder's proposal and
rejected a GOP alternative. The full House committee is expected to
act by Sunday.
   The subcommittee actions were more symbolic than substantive,
however, because their votes are not binding on the full committees.
   Holland named the Senate subcommittee last year - one of the few
in the assembly on which Republicans control a majority of votes -
and said at the time that he reserved the right to vote.
   The Republican handgun alternative, sponsored in the Senate by
Joseph B. Benedetti (R-Richmond) and co-signed by all 18 Republican
senators, would allow state residents to buy more than one gun a
month by making a request in person at a law enforcement office for
a certificate proving their residence and identity.
   The Republicans contend that would address the problem of
out-of-state buyers obtaining guns with phony driver's licenses,
while at the same time not penalizing law-abiding residents.
   "I can't answer why anyone needs more than one" a month,
Benedetti said, but lawmakers "ought not to interfere with the
rights of those who do."
   Secretary of Public Safety O. Randolph Rollins, Wilder's chief
strategist on anticrime measures, told the panel that the governor
believes that his bill and the Republican substitute "are directed
toward the same objective, reducing gun trafficking and guns in the
marketplace."