Gun Control Groups Claim Credit for Fimian Defeat

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence says that 11th District Republican Keith Fimian's support for the rights of law abiding gun owners is what defeated him on Tuesday.

Gun violence prevention advocates and Virginia Tech survivors applaud voters in Virginia’s 11th congressional district for handing a stinging loss to Republican candidate Keith Fimian. While a wave election was sweeping the country and the rest of the Commonwealth, Fimian finds himself 820 votes behind Democratic incumbent Rep. Gerry Connolly pending a possible recount.

Connolly currently holds a margin of between 800-900 votes over Fimian.  While it is true Fimian had the endorsement of the NRA-PVF and that a Bloomberg front group began running ads against Fimian for his pro-rights stand in the final week of the campaign, to say that his support for the rights of law abiding gun owners is what cost him the election may be a stretch.  The district supported Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli in 2009 as all three won statewide office.  All three of these candidates were at least as pro-rights (and in Cuccinelli's case probably more) as Fimian and none of them supports the position of CSGV, Omar Samaha, or the Brady Campaign, on the so-called "gun show loophole."