2014 VA Senate debate: on Gun Control

Ed Gillespie: Fight UN gun ban treaty, & fight bans on guns or ammunition

The ad could have unintended consequences for Gillespie, who secured the nomination in part by courting tea party conservatives--but who is now trying to woo more-moderate general-election voters. Gillespie risks alienating the electorate in vote-rich Northern Virginia who may be turned off by Second Amendment rhetoric, especially after mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007 and an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., in 2012.

[In the NRA flyer], a smiling Gillespie appears alongside his pledge to "strongly oppose and fight against" Obama's "anti-gun nominees for the US Supreme Court," a UN gun ban treaty, any bans on guns and ammunition, a federal gun registration database and government approval for gun sales among friends and family.

Mark Warner: Restrict but don't ban high-capacity magazines

Warner has a complicated relationship with gun issues. In 2008, the NRA gave him an A--a grade the group says has expired; new rankings will come out soon. After the Newtown shooting, Warner declared his support for some gun-control measures and said: "There's got to be a way to put reasonable restrictions, particularly as we look at assault weapons, as we look at these fast clips of ammunition."

Yet four months later, his votes tell a different story. He voted against bans of high-profile assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and he supported efforts to protect gun owner privacy and grant rights to carry concealed weapons across state lines.

He did, however, vote for an unsuccessful compromise that would have expanded background checks for firearms purchases.