"RICHMOND, June 5 - Gun issues have moved to the center of the Democratic race for attorney general, with one candidate running ads that invoke the Collumbine High School massacre and accuse two rivals of voting against measures to keep guns out of the schools.

The tactic by Del. A. Donald McEachin, which he said focuses on 'gun safety' and not 'gun control,' has Republicans gloating and political analysts recalling how gun issues hurt Democratic candidates in general elections in 1993, 1997 and 1999.

McEachin's message is aimed at the suburban and urban party loyalists likely to dominate the primary on June 12, when turnout is expected to be very low.

But recent political history has convinced many Virginia Democrats that the issue drives away voters in general elections, particularly in rural areas being courted heavily by the party's nominee for governor, Mark R. Warner. He has avoided the issue and printed hunter-orange bumper stickers showing a hunting gun and the words 'Sportsmen for Mark Warner.'

Mark J. Rozell, a politics professor at Catholic University, said, 'I'm convinced from having observed a number of Virginia campaigns that a tough law-and-order message will trump a strong gun-control message every time.'

The ad by McEachin, of Henrico County, accuses his two leading rivals, Del. Whittington W. Clement, of Danville, and state Sen. John S. Edwards, of Roanoke, of being cozy with gun rights groups such as the National Rifle Association.

Both have criticized the ad - which shows news coverage of the shooting at Columbine in 1999 - as a mischaracterization of their records.

'Whitt Clement and John Edwards oppose banning guns in Virginia's schools,' an announcer says in the ad. McEachin follows by saying, 'I've taken on the gun lobby extremists.' He calls for a strict ban on guns in our schools.'

The ad is running in Richmond and Hampton Roads and is echoed in campaign mailings in Northern Virginia, where television time is prohibitively expensive for most primary election campaigns.

McEachin officials say the ad refers to votes in 1999 by Edwards and Clement on House Bill 1462, which sought to close a loophole allowing students to leave guns in cars parked in school lots.

All three lawmakers voted for the bill, but McEachin voted against an effort by rural lawmakers and Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) to create an exception for students with valid hunting licenses if the guns were unloaded and locked in a vehicle during hunting season. Both Edwards and Clement voted for that exception.

No such detail is provided in the ad itself.

Edwards called the accusations in the ad 'plain not true' and 'absurd.'

'It remains a felony to have a gun in a school, and no one wants to change that,' he said.

Clement, who co-sponsored a bill that same year that created a mandatory five-year sentence for anyone who brings a firearm into a school with the intent to use it, called the McEachin ad misleading.

'No one can take seriously an ad that suggests that a legislator who has three small boys is in favor of bringing guns on school property,' Clement said. 'Don needs to be more forthright.'

McEachin offered no apologies today. 'I'm for a strict ban on guns on school grounds, no exception,' he said. 'The ad is absolutely accurate.'

He noted that both Edwards and Clement voted in 1997 to oppose a bill that would have given Fairfax County and other local governments the right to prohibit guns in recreation centers. Clement said recently that he no longer opposes the bill. Edwards has not changed his position but said he believes local officials already have that power.

Edwards also called McEachin's strategy 'a mistake' for Democrats. 'We all want safe schools, but in western Virginia, in rural areas ... they feel that they should have the freedom to bear arms for hunting or other recreational uses.'

Warner declined to comment today on McEachin's focus on gun issues, saying, 'I support the rights of hunters'" (Craig Timberg, The Washington Post, June 6, 2001).

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