Talking Politics: Bail Bond Enforcer Prefers McCain's Take On Gun Rights

The Hartford Courant ^ | October 10, 2008 | VANESSA DE LA TORRE

[neverdem]

Andrew Bloom bought his first gun when he was a 21-year-old working security and thought a 9mm might help his career.

Now he's a bail bond enforcer who tracks down fugitives and owns a small security surveillance business in Avon that sells nanny-cams to Farmington Valley families. He doesn't have time to hunt deer, the way he did as a teen.

These days, Bloom says, he hunts people.

His right to bear arms is a "pretty strong reason" why a McCain-Palin sign is staked into his front lawn, he says. In a Democratic Obama administration, Bloom fears that the Second Amendment, an American freedom he considers as basic as voting, will come under attack. Little by little, Bloom contends, all semiautomatic guns will be labeled "assault weapons" and new applications for pistol permits will be put on hold.

The National Rifle Association claims that Barack Obama would be "the most anti-gun president in American history." Obama has said that he would uphold Second Amendment rights but support "common-sense" gun control measures.

"If anybody enters our house, we should be able to carry arms to kill them," says Bloom, 40, a bulky, 6-foot-4 father of two. He speaks with a concealed pistol on his hip and notes that his wife also has a gun permit.

In the early 1990s, Bloom was a victim of gun violence. He got into an argument with a man outside a bar and was pistol-whipped in the head three times before he was shot in the leg, he says. The bullet went straight through his calf and now belongs to Bloom's collection of life mementos. On that day, Bloom was not carrying a weapon.

"Fortunately for him," Bloom says of his attacker.

"It's our safety, and if we can't rely on ourselves to protect ourselves, then..."

[Waco]

Mr. Politicion; What is it you have planned for me, that you’re so damned worried abot me owning a gun.’’