How John Kasich Flipped a Mixed Gun Voting Record into an ‘A’ Grade from the NRA
As governor of Ohio, Kasich quickly adopted the GOP’s pro-gun stance — even though he’s “not a gun guy.”
by Dan Friedman
· @dfriedman33
·February 5, 2016
Ohio Governor John Kasich learned of last October’s shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, which left 10 dead, during a televised interview. While informing him of the shooting, an NBC reporter called Kasich a “supporter of gun control” who once earned an F rating from the National Rifle Association (NRA).
The Republican presidential candidate immediately corrected him. “I’ve received an A rating since I’ve been governor,” said Kasich, who won his first gubernatorial term in 2010. “You can strip all the guns away, but the people who are gonna commit crimes or have problems are always gonna be able to have the guns,” he added. “People feel like, ‘I’d like to be able to protect myself.’”
In 1993, following a different mass shooting, Kasich saw the issue another way. After a man used an automatic pistol to fatally shoot eight people at a San Francisco law firm, he was one of 215 House members to vote for a ban on assault weapons that became law in 1994. It was that vote that earned Kasich the failing NRA grade.
A decade and a half later, in 2009, Kasich returned to politics from a private sector sojourn to run for Ohio governor — and the NRA gave its endorsement to his opponent, incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland.
Kasich managed to win that campaign. He also got the NRA’s message. During his tenure in the House of Representatives from 1983 to 2001, his record on guns was mixed: While he voted for the assault weapons ban, he also voted against the Brady Bill, which established current background check laws. As governor, by contrast, Kasich’s record has been unambiguous: He has not vetoed a single pro-gun bill passed by the Republican-dominated general assembly.
As he runs for president, Kasich’s shift on guns makes him a good example of how Republicans who are considered to be relatively moderate handle the issue. His campaign websites declares that he “continues to be a strong supporter of the right to bear arms” and notes that Kasich “is a gun owner himself.”
http://www.thetrace.org/2016/02/kasich-voting-record-guns/
>>How John Kasich Flipped a Mixed Gun Voting Record into an ‘A’ Grade from the NRA
While this is true, it doesn’t tell the whole story of the 1993 Assault Weapons bill (Clinton Crime bill).
As I posted recently and also sent a letter to the Toledo Blade last week, the bill was dead in the water with Democrats bailing. A preliminary vote had failed and John Kasich mainly, with Mike Castle and Debra Pryce got 42 Republicans to also flip, in Kasich’s effort to be ‘bipartisan’ as well as his reaching across the aisle.
Without Kasich and Castle there would have been no assault weapons bill precedent, for other gun grabbing legislation - federal and state, to add to.
So while the bill itself was a problem at the time, the bigger problem with Kasich - as we have heard in many of his recent debate performances - is his affinity for the idea of “bipartisanship” and reaching out to others - ie Democrats - to get compromises in legislation.
Yet there was no ‘give and take’ on the assault weapons ban - every Clinton and Democrat issue was passed without anything in return - iow, just like the ‘reaching across the aisle’ by McCain, Graham, McConnell, Boehner and others have done for decades now - only benefiting the Dems with nothing to show on the Republican side.
“In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit. In that transfusion of blood which drains the good to feed the evil, the compromiser is the transmitting rubber tube . . .” Ayn Rand
In the Assault Weapons ban, Kasich was the “tube” and while he may now say that he was wrong, his ‘process/operating basis’ is still part of his tool box. So while it may have been guns then, who knows what it may be the next time he decides to ‘reach across the aisle’ and compromise - Supreme Court Justices? Obamacare? Giving “undocumented Democrats” citizenship?
Read about the crime bill ‘compromise’ here: