WASHINGTON – The day after he was sworn in, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, a Democrat, ordered the removal of all “Virginia Exile” highway signs and billboards bearing the name of former Republican Gov. Jim Gilmore, who signed the successful anti-gun-crime measure into law, WorldNetDaily has learned.
Even state troopers were ordered to scrape off the yellow-and-black “Virginia Exile” bumper stickers from their cruisers.
While GOP officials knock the move as “petty,” law enforcement officials say it could hurt the success of the program. Awareness of the law among criminals is key to deterring violent crime, they say.
The tough Exile program carries a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in a Virginia prison for violent felons convicted of possessing a firearm, or anyone convicted of brandishing a gun on school property or caught with an illegal gun and hard drugs.
Since January 2000, state prosecutors have won 278 convictions under the law, with an 81 percent conviction rate. Gilmore’s popular program, which has been held up as a national model, helped cut gun violence in Richmond, Va., once the murder capital of America, by 40 percent.
Warner’s photo now appears on the Exile website home page touting the program’s successes.
A spokesman in Warner’s office in Richmond said the
signs, billboards and patrol-car decals contained
dated information and needed to be taken down. He
insisted the move had nothing to do with politics.
“The bumper stickers were removed because they prominently featured the name of a man who is no longer governor,” said Warner spokesman Kevin Hall. “And the signs were removed, again, because they prominently billboarded the name of a former governor.”
But Gilmore’s name on the trooper bumper stickers is so small it can barely be read from another car. Same goes for the billboards and signs.
The sticker reads: “ILLEGAL GUN? VIRGINIA EXILE.” At the bottom, in small print, it says, “Jim Gilmore, Governor.” The billboard says: “ILLEGAL GUN? 5 YEARS IN PRISON. VIRGINIA EXILE.” Underneath it asks citizens to report illegal guns to a toll-free number. Gilmore’s name, in the smallest letters, appears at the bottom.
Hall says the signs and stickers will not be updated with Warner’s name and replaced, because the funds aren’t available. He says the state is facing a revenue shortfall of nearly $4 billion.
Exile billboard |
But removing the highway signs isn’t exactly cheap, costing the Virginia Department of Transportation about $300 per sign, a spokesman told WorldNetDaily. And the large aluminum signs originally cost about $1,600 each to make and post across the state. The cost of the billboards and stickers was not immediately available.
The three Exile signs around the Beltway, including the one greeting Washington motorists coming across the Potomac into Virginia on Interstate 66, were among the first to go, the department spokesman said.
“They were taken down the day after Warner was sworn in” on Jan. 12, he said.
“That’s so anal,” added the official, who wished to go unnamed for fear of reprisal.
A Republican National Committee spokesman agreed.
“To order that the former governor’s name be taken off for petty political reasons is silly – and pretty shortsighted,” said RNC’s Kevin Sheridan.
“Exile is a very successful program that’s gotten a lot of illegal guns off the street and a lot of criminals in jail,” he said. “And the president made it part of his crime-fighting agenda.”
Gilmore recently stepped down as RNC chairman.
Law enforcement sources say the signs, with their bold warning of an automatic five-year punishment, acted as a visual deterrent, making criminals think twice about using a gun.
Asked about it, Hall replied, “I don’t think there’s any research to support that.”
An official with the National Rifle Association, which has touted Exile as an alternative to gun control, says that Warner also wants to cut back on funding for the program – even though he said he wanted to expand the program during the campaign.
“The cuts are more than cosmetic,” the NRA official said. “The cuts are going to go as far as utilization of state attorneys to prosecute Exile cases.”
Richmond provides grants to Virginia counties to pay for assistant DAs and staff to focus on prosecuting Exile cases. The grants also fund PSA advertising for the program on radio, as well as public-awareness campaigns in schools and other public forums.
Hall declined comment on the grant issue.