George,

The NRA requested a meeting and Mark Warner agreed to talk to them, with the object of neutralizing their grass roots and financial support for Mark Earley. The NRA will do what the NRA will do and an endorsement is highly unlikely, but they are a group with whom Mark is pleased to have a conversation.

Mark's position has been consistent. He has said we have enough gun laws on the books. As the Washington Post noted, he amended that once our attorneys convinced him that there was a law suit brought for local option in Fairfax and it failed; therefore legislation is the only option. He would sign a bill to keep guns out of recreation centers, as his quote in the Post noted, that is unlikely to get to his or any governor's desk, given the current make up of the General Assembly. The second amending of his position, to get the issue off the table, was to acknowledge he would veto a bill on more guns bought.

The operative phrase in all this, it seems to me, is "given the current make up in the General Assembly." What needs redefining is majority power in Richmond, not the gun issue.

Betty Jolly (electronic mail, July 22, 2001).