Gun Control Likely a Tall Mountain to Climb for McAuliffe

That's the assessment of this analyis piece by Skip Wood on WJLA ABC 7.  According to Wood, Terry McAuliffe's dissing hundreds of thousands of NRA members in Virginia impressed former Govenor Doug Wilder:

“He has no idea as to how impressed I was with that,” Wilder said recently over the phone before recounting a conversation he had with McAuliffe soon after the debate. “I told him, I said, ‘Terry, I don’t want you to think that it changed my view in terms of endorsement, but it strengthened it. As I said to you, I wanted a reason to have to say that this is why I’m endorsing and supporting you. I want to be able to say that to the people of Virginia.’

“And he didn’t really try to paper it over. He said what he had to say. . .To take on a powerful lobbying group like the NRA, in Virginia, is not the easiest thing to do.”

But, as Wood notes, that is not necessarily going to get gun control passed in the pro-rights dominated House of Delegates.  Pointing to the defeat of federal gun control after the Newtown school shooting, Wood noted a similar fate likely awaits McAuliffe in the General Assembly.

Things have changed since Wilder was Governor.  Just two sessions ago, the General Assembly passed and Govenror McDonnell signed a bill repealing the signature acheivement of Wilder's term in office - one gun-a-month.