(FORTUNE Magazine) – Could James C. Wheat III, 40, be having a mid-life crisis? Why else would an investment banker active in Republican politics join forces with Virginia's Democratic governor, L. Douglas Wilder? And why else would a lifelong hunter raise money to support handgun control legislation proposed by Wilder and opposed by the National Rifle Association? Conviction, for one thing. ''Handguns are meant mainly for hurting people,'' says Wheat, a managing director at Wheat First Securities in Richmond.''There is very little hunting use for them.'' He and Randolph W. McElroy, president of NationsBank of Virginia, co-chaired a group called Virginians Against Gun Trafficking. They helped raise $94,000 to pay for TV, radio, and newspaper advertisements backing Wilder's bill, passed in February by Virginia's House and Senate. The bill limits handgun purchases to one a month per person unless the state police give permission. The goal: to end Virginia's status as the East Coast capital for gun traffickers who sell weapons to criminals for cash and drugs. ''I got some flak about working with a Democratic governor,'' says Wheat. ''But this is not a partisan issue. We can't have Virginia labeled a gun- running state if we want to spur economic development.'' Although Wheat likes to shoot birds, he is a conspicuous nonmember of the NRA. ''I think the NRA would argue that everyone should be able to have a Sherman tank in the backyard with live shells.''