State Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant tries to re-write record on guns

In a new campaign ad, State Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant (R-Henrico) says she wants to ban bump stocks, devices used to fire ammunition cartridges in rapid succession.

There’s just one problem — last year, as a member of the General Assembly, Dunnavant voted no on a bill that would have made it a misdemeanor under state law to sell or own a bump stock. In a statement, her campaign manager said that anything short of a federal ban would be ineffective because bump stocks could still easily be purchased across state lines.

However, Dunnavant has a long history of voting against gun safety legislation. As her Democratic challenger, Del. Debra Rodman (Henrico) points out in a competing ad, Dunnavant received an “A” rating from the NRA in 2015, voted against expanded background checks on gun sales, and joined Republicans in voting to end a July special session on guns and punt the issue to 2020.

“Our ad highlights Senator Dunnavant’s record in working to reduce gun violence,” Dunnavant Campaign Manager Marshall Moreau said in the statement. 

Everytown for Gun Safety, an advocacy group, questioned her record, saying the ad is “pretending to support gun violence prevention measures in a blatant effort to mislead voters about her actual record of opposing gun safety legislation in the Virginia General Assembly.”

The Dunnavant-Rodman race leads all state Senate contests when it comes to spending on television ads, now over $1.3 million, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.