(Steve Helber/ AP ) - Gun control advocates including Virginia Tech shooting victim Colin Goddard, at podium, rally at the Bell tower at the Capitol in Richmond on Monday. The roses scattered in the foreground represent Virginia gun violence victims.
RICHMOND — There were boisterous rallies and quiet tete-a-tetes, live animals and biker leather, little stickers and big signs, and so many guns that police designated a special door for everyone entering the Capitol armed.
Lobby Day at the Virginia General Assembly drew thousands of Virginians, who descended upon Richmond on Monday as they do every year for a day devoted to amateur arm-twisting.
Virginia General Assembly: 2012 Guide
Professional lobbyists troll Richmond’s marble corridors every day of the General Assembly session. Monday was for those pushing causes without the benefit of a paycheck or expense account, a day when ordinary citizens could drop by offices without an appointment and expect to get an audience with a senator or delegate.
“History is made by those who show up, and you showed up,” Bob Sadtler, gun-show coordinator for the Virginia Citizens Defense League, told hundreds of gun-rights activists who rallied at the brick bell tower on Capitol Square. They wore stickers that read “Guns Save Lives” and “Freedom is not a Loophole.”
Two hours later, about 50 people gathered at the same spot to pay homage to the victims of gun violence. Many wore large yellow stickers reading “Background Checks Save Lives” or scarves in the maroon and orange of Virginia Tech, where 32 people were shot to death in 2007.
Passionate lobbying went on inside the Capitol, where the legislative session got underway last week. Inside the General Assembly Building, some groups had information booths, as if it were a trade show. The showstopper was the Virginia Living Museum, which had a live rabbit and great horned owl on display, along with skunk, raccoon and bear skins.
Terry “Rock” Moeslein, assistant education director at the private zoo, planetarium and observatory in Newport News, hoped the abbreviated menagerie would drum up state money .
“We’re hoping that someday . . . maybe we could get support from the state,” said Moeslein, who strolled the lobby of the General Assembly Building with the rabbit and invited people to pet it.
Citizens pushed for issues ranging from more mental-health funding to looser motorcycle laws. Sometimes the advocates rubbed elbows in unexpected ways. One woman who had come to fight a proposed ban on private gun sales wound up posing for a photo with Moeslein’s rabbit.
Whether they were advocating for conservative “family values” or gay rights and abortion access, there was agreement on one point: Lobby Day was the time to do it.
“I almost think if you aren’t here,” said Josh Horwitz, executive director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, “people will ask, ‘Where are you?’ ”
Strategies for buttonholing lawmakers varied. Horwitz said his members visited the offices of legislators friendly to their cause and those they thought could be persuaded.
“You always want to say hello to your friends, and then you go for the swings,’’ he said.
James Van Bavel, a Yorktown psychiatrist and gun-rights activist, sought out lawmakers who opposed him on the issue.
“It’s actually more fun to do, a little push-pull,” he said. “It’s exhilarating.”
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