NRA to back Republican McDonnell for Virginia governor

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican and Democratic operatives say the National Rifle Association will endorse Republican Bob McDonnell for governor.

The gun rights group plans to announce its choice in a Monday afternoon conference call for reporters.

Operatives with knowledge of the NRA’s decision confirmed the endorsement on the condition of anonymity because no official announcement had been made.

The endorsement is a difficult reversal for Democratic candidate R. Creigh Deeds, whom the NRA endorsed over McDonnell in their race for attorney general four years ago.

Deeds, a country lawyer and outdoorsman who grew up in rural and mountainous Bath County and has represented it since 1992 in the General Assembly, is vigorously battling McDonnell in rural areas. But losing the NRA’s backing is a blow to his efforts to win over conservative areas outside Virginia’s cities and suburbs where hunting and gun ownership enjoy strong support.

There was no immediate comment on Monday’s endorsement from officials at the NRA’s national headquarters in Fairfax County or from Deeds’ campaign.

McDonnell’s campaign didn’t address the pending endorsement in a general statement from the candidate on support for Second Amendment rights.

McDonnell and Deeds both have legislative track records mostly supportive of gun rights.

Deeds opposed then-Gov. L. Douglas Wilder’s successful legislation in 1993 to limit handgun purchases in Virginia to one per person per month. Virginia had gained a reputation as a major East Coast supplier of guns, many of which turned up in the hands of criminals.

McDonnell, citing the interests of law-enforcement, supported the one-gun-a-month law.

Deeds sought to close a loophole in state law that exempts private firearms sellers at gun shows from conducting the same background checks that federally licensed gun dealers must perform.

His action came after the April 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech in which a student gunman with two handguns shot 32 people dead on the Blacksburg campus, then killed himself as police closed in.

McDonnell, the state attorney general from January 2006 until February, when he resigned to campaign for governor full time, opposed efforts to close the ``gun show loophole.‘’