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There were 6 key votes on pro-gun legislation on the Floor of the House of Delegates during the 2001 Legislative Session. The 2001 Delegate Voting Record shows how each Delegate voted on these key votes. In order to gain insight as to whether or not the Delegates earned the rating that the NRA assigned them back in 1999, one needs to look at the voting as a function of NRA rating, i.e. how all the NRA "A" rated Delegates voted, then how all the NRA "B" rated Delegates voted, etc. One would expect that the NRA "A" rated Delegates would have all consistently cast pro-gun votes, while NRA "F" rated Delegates would have consistently cast anti-gun votes. Unfortunately, the rating that was LEAST likely to indicate how a Delegate would vote was an NRA "A" rating. Over a third of NRA "A" rated Delegates cast votes more in line with Delegates with a "C", "D", or "F" rating. The following 22 Delegates clearly did not earn their NRA "A" rating during the 2001 Legislative Session (those with an asterisk after their name have announced that they will not seek reelection):
The following table summarizes the number of pro-gun votes cast as a function of NRA rating. For
comparison purposes, the last line of the table identifies a new rating based upon the Delegates' voting during the
2001 Legislative Session. Those who cast at most one pro-gun vote were considered an "F", those who cast
two pro-gun votes a "D", those who cast three pro-gun votes a "C", those who cast four pro-gun votes a "B", and
finally those who cast five or six pro-gun votes an "A".
It's interesting to note the party affiliation of the seven Delegates who voted pro-gun on each of these six key votes -- five were Democrats, one was Republican, and one was an Independent. At the other extreme, Delegate Clement is the only "A" rated Delegate who did not cast any pro-gun votes on these six key votes. He cast five anti-gun votes and did not vote once. A newspaper article covering the Democratic nomination for Attorney General reported that he said that he inadvertently missed the vote on HB 1969 (the bill that clarified and reinforced the law preventing localities from enacting local gun control restrictions) but would have voted against it -- one more anti-gun vote! That's an abysmal voting record for an "A" rated Delegate! The following table summarizes the number of anti-gun votes cast as a function of NRA rating. As in the
first table, the last line of the table identifies a new rating based upon voting during the 2001 Legislative Session.
Those who cast five or six anti-gun votes were considered an "F", those who cast four anti-gun votes a "D", etc.
Finally, the following table lists the Delegate rating distributions based upon the 1999 NRA Rating and the rating
derived from how they actually voted during the 2001 Legislative Session:
Whether you look at the pro-gun votes cast or at the anti-gun votes cast during the 2001 Legislative Session, it's clear that a significant number of Delegates did not live up to their NRA rating assigned in 1999. The Delegates who did not live up to their rating let their constituents, all gun owners in the Commonwealth, and the NRA down. |
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