A Rudy Awakening for the NRA

Third Way ^ | 2/8/07 | Matt Bennett

[NormsRevenge]

A little-noticed oddity of the 2008 presidential election field is that the three leading candidates for the Republican nomination have, at one time or another, gone to war with the NRA and its allies on the gun issue.

After six years of thumb-twiddling boredom – the issue has been off the radar in elections and in Congress – the gun lobby must have been a bit shocked when they realized what they faced: John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, all once proud champions of sensible gun laws, are the odds-on favorites to carry the GOP banner.

Consider their histories:

McCain was the lead sponsor of federal legislation to close the gun show loophole. In 2000, he appeared in television ads in Colorado urging voters to pass a ballot initiative closing the loophole there.

Romney signed a state ban on assault weapons into law as Governor of Massachusetts. And as the Boston Globe has reported, he said during a debate in 2002 that he supported his state’s tough gun laws and vowed that he would not “chip away at them” because they “protect us and provide for our safety”

Giuliani aggressively went after illegal gun traffickers when he was mayor, and he filed a lawsuit against a bunch of major gun manufactures and dealers. He’s on record supporting tougher gun laws, including the assault weapons ban.

Now, the gun lobby is not subtle in responding to perceived threats. NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre gave a speech six months after 9-11 comparing our old organization, Americans for Gun Safety, to al Qaeda and our founder to Osama bin Laden. LaPierre concluded, not without some hyperbole, that we were “a far greater threat to your freedom than any foreign force”.

So it’s no surprise that the NRA responded to this problem with overwhelming firepower.

First, they attacked John McCain, slathering his caricature on their magazine covers and calling him “one of the premier flag-carriers for the enemies of the Second Amendment.” McCain buckled like he was gut-shot – he has stopped talking about guns (despite the fact that the gun show loophole remains open in most states), and he just brought on James Jay Baker, once the NRA’s lead man in Washington, as a strategist for his “kitchen cabinet.”

Then they took on Mitt Romney. After getting peppered with criticism for his gun positions, Romney, who does not own a gun, now calls himself a “proud” NRA member. He even toured a gun show with the NRA’s chief lobbyist Chris Cox, (the guy who took over for McCain’s kitchen-mate Baker).

Most recently, they trained their sights on Rudy Giuliani. In a press release this week, an NRA ally called the National Shooting Sports Federation warned: “Giuliani No Friend to Gun Owners.”

How Giuliani will respond is not yet clear – as the NSSF notes, there are conflicting signals out of his camp about where he stands today on guns.

But if Rudy Giuliani is anything, he’s tough. We hope that he treats these thugs the way he treated them back when he was cleaning up New York one turnstile-jumper at a time.

Our advice to Rudy: tell the NRA and its minions that you will not be cowed, and stick to your guns: you are a strong supporter of the rights of law-abiding citizens to own firearms. But rights come with responsibilities. And anyone who isn’t responsible about owning, selling, or using their guns should lose those rights.

[Gracey]

Appreciate your comments. You're so right-on. People who degrade Rudy probably haven't taken the time to check out his record.

[Clemenza]

I do agree that localities have a right to regulate the bearing of firearms (open carry vs. concealed carry, having them unloaded during parades, etc.). But they can get into serious trouble when such regulations become an undue burden on the individuals constitutional rights (and yes, it is an individual and not a collective right, as you agree).

Had to take a firearms safety course when I got my Florida concealed carry permit. For Washington, it wasn't necessary. Nevertheless, I do agree that classes in markmanship and defensive shooting are essential. Teddy Roosevelt even believed that they were an essential part of anyone's education.

Unfortunatly, in my home state of New York, the attitude is "we need to get the guns out of the hands of the dangerous minorities from the boroughs, and only the cops can protect us." It never crosses their little minds that they have a right to defend themselves. Only serves to prove my belief that, in terms of weltenschang. NYers are the most European people in the US.

[Wallace T.]

The 10th Amendment does not supercede the rest of the Bill of Rights, and the 14th Amendment made the Constitutional guarantees of the Bill of Rights applicable to state and local governments. A state or local government cannot suppress freedom of speech, the press, or religion due to the First Amendment. Neither should they be allowed to effectively ban firearms ownership, as has been done in New York City since 1911 under the Sullivan Act. The original intent of the law was to keep firearms in the hands of the Anglo-Protestant elite and the Irish politicians and police, and away from the swelling populations of Italian, Polish, and Jewish immigrants. In effect, it is all but impossible to obtain a permit unless you are a retired policemen or a member of the city's political, financial, and entertainment elite. Famous permit holders include the following celebrities (per Wikipedia):

Don Imus
Harvey Keitel
Joseph Bruno
Ronald Lauder
Edgar Bronfman, Sr.
Howard Stern
Donald Trump
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Joan Rivers
Arthur Hays Sulzberger
Robert DeNiro

Everyone else in New York City is effectively denied the right to possess handguns. This violation of Second Amendment rights is nearly a century old and should be overturned as was a similar law in the District of Columbia.

[pissant]

http://pajamasmedia.com/2007/02/giuliani_criticizes_gore_for_n.php

[pissant]

I know his record better than most of his defenders

[justshutupandtakeit]

Illinois (of all places) removes the ambiguity about the 2d by including in its constitution the provision that every able-bodied person is a member of the militia. Lots of good that does us here. I came to Chicago from a small Arkansas town and guns were as much a part of daily life as breathing they were around me all the time in trucks, over fireplace mantels, standing next to grandma's bed etc.
I like 'em.

Firearms training SHOULD be part of the education curriculum we had rifle clubs in high school. It is because of the excessive fear that people with no experience have of firearms that many of these laws can be passed. State certification should not be mandatory either but groups like the NRA should be allowed to provide that.

It is remarkable that Washington has not tightened its gun laws given the liberal control there.

[pissant]

We have one of the best local gun lobbies here in Wash state. Our state is mostly rural and gun owner territory.

[Clemenza]

New Jersey's laws are not as noxious as those in New York (no need to "prove" that you need a handgun to own one), although we do have the equivalent of the FOID, which you are well aware of. When I brought my guns that I bought on the west coast and in Florida, had to fill out a registration form with the state police.

Marksmanship and defensive shooting classes can save your life and those around you. Just ask Huey Long and his bumbling body guards, who shot their boss instead of Mr. Weiss, at POINT BLANK RANGE!

[justshutupandtakeit]

Thanks for the link. Unfortunately that is the same quote which I have seen. It does NOT indicate anything other than what I have said. R says there IS global warming which is TRUE. He does not dispute the scientists who claim man is a significant cause of it because he says he isn't a scientist. THEN he goes on to say that it does not even MATTER if man is or isn't a factor since the gases alleged to be behind GW need to be reduced ANYWAY.

Now that does NOT show he is on the bandwagon at all. He refuses to get mixed up in the debate moves the issue to a higher ground then whacks the nutballs over the head by calling for more Nuclear energy. He is the LAST person the environazis will call to be on their side.

Are you really going to tell me you did not understand this?

[tcostell]

An AK47 is highly restricted in this country because it's capable of fully automatic fire. Almost no-one actually has one and I'm willing to bet that most of the people who do are either dealers, law enforcement, or criminals and if they are criminals, they don't care about some silliy gun ban.

I however have a Romanian rifle called a WASR 10 which looks a great deal like an AK 47. I live in NJ, and typically hunt Deer in heavy woods. The bullet the WASR 10 fires makes it a perfect Deer rifle for the big woods.

But my point was, that the things you call "killing machines" are not actually for sale in this country. And although it may not make you feel happy about it, there is actually a sound constitutional justification for people having exactly the weapons you seem to have an issue with.

The fact of the matter is, if I wanted to kill people any semi automatic Deer rifle would be just as effective as my WASR10. I even have several rifles which are FAR more powerful than my WASR10 and no one has ever considered banning them.

And that was the point of my note before... because you are under informed you seem to think that these weapons have some special characteristic which makes them more dangerous that others. This is simply not true.

And I don't mean to be disrespectful, but I think your arguments would be better served if you go to a shooting range somewhere and learn something about it before you try to persuade others to your view. And if your view changes because you've learned something about it, so much the better for all of us.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Then why do you send idiots to the Senate? And allow elections to be stolen? This baffles me. I was out there last summer visiting my Navy boy across the bay from Seattle. Loved the little town he lives in and thought the state was beautiful.

[tcostell]

BTW, I lied... although I shoot it sometimes the WASR10 is actually my wife's gun. I'm more of an AR15 fan myself.

[pissant]

Just WHO are the special interests he castigated Gore for not going after? This more than strongly implies Rudy would go after those "special interests". Car makers? Oil companies? Power generators?

He's out of his league and grasping at straws and grasping at the wrong ones. The fact he sat thru that propaganda and didn't call it that is proof of his line of thinking.

Try listening to Inhofe sometime if you want to know what a scam Algorism is.

[pissant]

Becasue Seattle and environs hold well over half the states population. :(

[justshutupandtakeit]

Actually they shot their boss AND Dr. Weiss.

Tank Johnson just went to jail because of his violation of Illinois registration laws. Being raised in Arizona and attending Washington STate he was unaware of the Illinois restrictions and got cracked. That case will likely be thrown out of court but he was on probation for having a pistol in his car already so it was revoked.

[tcostell]

Well to be fair though clemenza, NJ hasn't issued a concealed carry permit to anyone but a law enforcement officer in over 20 years. And even law enforcement staff have to give theirs back when they retire.

At least NYC will give you one if you make the right sized donation to the right PAC.

[justshutupandtakeit]

One of those "special interests" is the anti-nuclear lobby and those industries opposing it. Another might be an oil company which has provided his family with its wealth, Occidental Petroleum. Since Gore goes after all the usual suspects: oil companies, auto companies, power companies it would be hard to say what he was alleging had been left out.

Out of his league? He admits to not being a scientist having only read some of the "reports". He responded to questions. Had he not then we would not have heard the last of it from you about how he dodged the questions.

[Clemenza]

I have colleagues who live in PA just so they can carry. It also helps that property taxes are quite low compared to my side of the river.

Oddly enough, Connecticut has had shall issue for as long as I can remember. The first person I ever knew who had a concealed carry permit was a lawyer friend of my father's who lived in Greenwich.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Right but that has not been translated into more restrictive gun laws which is what mystifies me.

[tcostell]

Yeah I keep telling people, NJ may have the highest property taxes by state, but it's nothing compared to what they are doing to you all in Westchester.