"The itinerary for legislators' spouses on their annual visit to the Capitol has always been a day of wine tastings, museum tours and the occasional fashion show.

But now that more women are winning seats in the House of Delegates, their husbands want a different kind of field trip. Something for the guys: an outing to the shooting range.

'Spouses are not just sitting around powdering their noses waiting for their spouses,' said Ted Drake, of Norfolk, whose wife, Thelma, is serving her fifth term as a Republican delegate. 'We've had wine tastings and wine smellings and looks at fancy clothes. I just thought it was time to have a little action.'

Drake sent invitations last week to 90 spouses to a Feb. 13 'Spouses of the House' outing at the D&P Shooting Range in Richmond. 'Feel the difference between the kick of a .22 and a .45 handgun,' the invitation reads, promising demonstrations of different-caliber guns and ballistics.

Times are changing in the Virginia legislature, as the old Democratic majority in the House yields to Republicans -- many of them strong believers in gun rights.

But the event is causing a stir among some lawmakers and their spouses, who say a field trip to shoot guns will send the wrong message to Virginians.

'I was just blown away when I opened it,' said Jane Plum, who received the invitation on Monday and immediately called her husband, Kenneth, a Democratic delegate from Fairfax County, to ask him if it was a joke.

Plum, a high school teacher, said she has spent her life teaching teenagers how to handle conflict without picking up a weapon. 'I respect the right to hunt as sport, but I'm shocked that our policymakers are promoting the use of guns. Guns are a serious matter. I don't consider them something you go have fun with.'

Some lawmakers are furious that the outing is sponsored by the Virginia Capitol Police -- who offered their firearms experts for extra instruction -- and the Division of Legislative Services, the legislature's bill-writing office, which supplied the invitations.

'I hope the Capitol Police aren't so busy with field trips that they don't have time to walk me to my car at night,' said Del. Vivian E. Watts (D-Fairfax), whose husband will decline the invitation.

Police Capt. Larry Dollings said the Capitol Police, who also are offering transportation to the range, simply want to promote gun safety. 'The more knowledge you have about weapons,' he said, 'the better.'

But Del. Clifton A. 'Chip' Woodrum (D-Roanoke) said: 'I've had the feel of a .22 and I've had the feel of a .45. I don't know that the legislature needs to be inviting people to get the feel.'

Ted Drake said that while the event, co-sponsored by two wives of other conservative Republicans, is designed to appeal to men, he is encouraging women to attend. Of five spouses who have said they are coming, all are women. Of the two who sent regrets, one is Gov. Mark R. Warner's wife, Lisa Collis, who 'thought it would have been fun' but has another commitment that day as guest of honor at a luncheon at a museum, said Ellen Qualls, spokeswoman for Warner (D).

Part of the impetus for a new kind of field trip for House spouses is the growing power of Republican women, who now number eight to the Democrats' seven. This month, the chamber's GOP women held a news conference to announce their leadership positions and newly formed caucus. The Republican women say their husbands' values are similar to those of their male colleagues in the House: Many of them are gun owners who enjoy shooting in their leisure time.

'There are more things in life than tea parties,' Thelma Drake said, recalling a wine tasting Susan Allen held when her husband, Sen. George Allen (R), was governor.

'We always get females responding to a male world. Now Ted is a male responding to a female world.'" (Lisa Rein, The Washington Post, January 31, 2002)