"Well, that escalated quickly....."
That line by Ron Burgundy in Anchorman sums up the relationship between Governor Terry McAuliffe and gun-sense advocates in the span of two weeks. Anchorman was one of my daughter, Alison Parker's favorites, and I know she would take delight in that reference to the real but unfortunate turn of events in Virginia.
I stood shoulder to shoulder with the governor, Secretary of Public Safety Brian Moran, Lt. Governor Ralph Northam, and Attorney General Mark Herring as we advocated for new gun legislation on Martin Luther King Day. A little more than a week later, McAuliffe and Moran cut a deal with the NRA that gutted a courageous order by the attorney general.
In December, Herring created an uproar among the gun lobby crowd by enforcing Virginia's concealed carry laws and denying reciprocity to other states that don't meet Virginia's standards. Simple, right? The majority of gun owners and reasonable thinkers would not have an issue with this, nor do they object to universal background checks. But for the rabid NRA leadership and those who drink the Kool-Aid, the attorney general's order was yet another perceived attack on their "God-given" second amendment rights. So there we all were on Martin Luther King Day with Governor McAuliffe as our most vocal cheerleader. Then he did the inexplicable.
Ten days later I arrived home from Richmond after testifying before a senate committee on a background check bill. I got a text quoting a Washington Post report that a deal had been made between the governor and the NRA. Before I could read it, Secretary Moran called to pitch the deal they had struck. Governor McAuliffe called me next. It was the first I had heard about it. Based on their highlights, it sounded like a decent compromise. As I examined it further, I realized it was no compromise. In exchange for reversing Herring's reciprocity order, it provided a small provision to mandate that firearms be taken from individuals with permanent protective orders (without any mechanism for law enforcement to retrieve the guns.) NRA backed legislators never had a problem with that proposed bill, so its passage, while not assured, had a decent chance. Gutting reciprocity makes the Commonwealth less safe than before, so it really was a net loss. I came to the conclusion that it was a giveaway and told the governor and Secretary Moran and told them I just couldn't support it.
Now we know that the deal was made over an oyster dinner with NRA lobbyists and their legislative minions. No one on our side was at the table. The deal nearly fell apart when a senior Republican said on a radio program that the agreement was "a huge expansion of gun rights."
"When they laid it out to me, I'd make that deal every day of the week and twice on Sunday," Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-Shenandoah) said. "And then when I saw how folks on the other side of the aisle... they're pretty upset with the governor this morning. That's a pretty good barometer for me."
So there it was. Those of us on the gun violence prevention side were predictably outraged. However, I was amazed by the visceral response from Everytown for Gun Safety. We have worked with them extensively, and in my experience, they have trumpeted even minor victories. I'm speculating that Governor McAuliffe assumed they would do the same with his deal. They didn't, and instead "released the hounds," including a full page ad blasting him in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The back and forth vitriol is nothing short of astounding. The governor's spokesman characterized Everytown for Gun Safety as a "group from New York" that does not have the "interests of Virginians at heart." His spokesperson said that "we had no interaction with Everytown, the national folks, until after this deal became public. We wouldn't have even known who to call." Really? Short memory there. Last fall, the governor received more than two million dollars from Michael Bloomberg's political action committee to try to win two key senate races.
The question is, why did the governor do this? Is there a long game here? Was any "win," even the smallest, worth creating the maelstrom that followed? And the larger question is, given that he is clearly part of the Clinton inner circle, how does this action jibe with a candidate who is saying the same things the governor was saying three weeks ago -- until he caved. Hillary Clinton is in a dogfight with Bernie Sanders. Given how she's championed gun sense legislation, it will be very telling to see how she responds as Super Tuesday and the primary in Virginia looms. What the governor set in motion with his very shallow victory now has national implications.
Somewhere in the past couple of weeks, I'd like to think Governor McAuliffe muttered another of Anchorman's memorable quotes.
"I immediately regret this decision."