Posted on 04/28/2002 2:23:58 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
Georgia Democrat wows NRA; says own party doesn't understand gun rights
By SCOTT SONNER
The Associated Press
4/28/02 3:15 PM
RENO, Nev. (AP) -- Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia wowed the National Rifle Association as a "Democrat who wants more guns" and chastised his own party for failing to recognize the social and political reach of gun issues.
"There is nowhere I'd rather be tonight than right here with you, on the picket line of freedom's defense," Miller told more than 2,000 NRA members in a speech at Saturday night's banquet.
Only about half the crowd at the NRA's 131st annual meeting at the Reno Hilton hotel-casino stood when Miller was introduced as the first Democrat to give a keynote address to the gun rights group in more than a decade.
But nearly all rose to give a 30-second standing ovation by the time the popular former two-term governor finished his speech touting the NRA's 4.2 million members as the epitomee of "mainstream America."
"Like many of you, I've got more guns than I need, but not as many as I want," Miller said.
"Now that may sound a bit confusing to some -- a Democrat wanting more guns," he said, explaining he's a life member of the NRA with an A-plus voting record "and I'm darned proud of it."
Miller echoed the words of NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, who told more than 4,000 delegates at the annual meeting Saturday afternoon, "You are why Al Gore isn't in the White House."
Miller said Gore won partly because Democratic strategists listened to bad advice from pollsters who claimed voters favor gun control. He said Gore's stands on gun rights cost the former vice president key southern states, including Arkansas, West Virginia and Tennessee.
"I recall the surprise of national Democratic leaders at losing those states in the presidential election," Miller said.
"All their expert pollsters said voters favored some kind of gun control. ... Well, I stand with heartfelt conviction over a political wind gauge any day.
"What many do not understand is that the gun issue is not just about guns. It's about values. It's about setting priorities. It's about personal freedom. It's about trust," he said.
Miller said 73 percent of the Georgians he surveyed in a poll for his 1994 gubernatorial re-election bid agreed with the statement:
"Whenever I hear politicians talking about gun control, it makes me wonder if they understand my values or my way of life."
The last Democrat to give the NRA's keynote address was former Rep. Jack Brooks, D-Texas, in 1991.
Bill Bauer, an NRA board member from Boerne, Texas, said Miller's speech was on the mark.
"A lot of people here (at the convention) don't even shoot guns but are concerned about the principals of the NRA," he said.
David O. Boehm of Rochester, N.Y., a retired appellate judge in the state of New York, said in recent years "it seems most Democrats nationally have opposed instead of supported the right to possess firearms."
But Miller "has grown up with firearms. He understands there's nothing sinister about it," Boehm said. "I thought he beautifully, articulately and eloquently expressed the feelings of so many of us here."
Gun control advocates accused Miller of pandering to the NRA.
"As America struggles to increase national security, Senator Miller and other lawmakers should be acting on measures that will make our communities more secure rather than courting the NRA," said Michael D. Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
NRA leadership "does not represent the views of mainstream Americans," he said.
"Rather than working to prevent gun violence, the NRA fights to keep military-style assault weapons -- high-powered weapons with no civilian purpose -- easily available on our streets," Barnes said.
He also noted the recent election of three new U.S. senators -- Bill Nelson of Florida, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan and Maria Cantwell of Washington -- all Democrats "`who vocally supported sensible gun policy during their campaigns."
Miller told the NRA crowd Saturday night, "Folks, I ain't courted anybody since my wife, Shirley, said `yes' 48 years ago.
"When I look around this room, all I see is mainstream America. I see a room full of patriots who love their country and all it stands for."
"It has come down to us -- guardians of the liberty of the Second Amendment -- to ensure the preservation of our heritage."
1. WTF is an assault weapon? What's "military style'?
2. Who in the blue hell are you what a 'civilian purpose' is?
3. High Powered? A .223? What? What?
4. Debbie Stabusall didn't say anything about gun laws except for one MMM speech. She ran for cover after that and told me she was pro-2a.
When Republican Phil Gramm said that he was trashed by DemocRATs from coast to coast. Be interesting to see what the same bunch does now that it's one of their own (more or less) who has made the same statement.
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
What kind of firewater's ol' Zell been drinkin' out there in yonder Reno? Senior moment?
Same tired lies from the same tired group. They have NOTHING to stand on since Sept. 11th and now are starting to sound like a barking dog......the more you listen the easier it is to ignore.
Oh, and by the way, notice how the the Brady Morons said NADA,ZIP,ZERO, about the shooting in Germany?
Guns are now a surrogate issue - in the same way that abortion has been since 1973 - for the conflict between a Toronto-like Blue Nation and a very-socially-conservative Red Nation.
Gun rights is now a surrogate for every other front in what Pat Buchanan aptly called the "culture war" in 1992 - abortion, gay rights, racial quotas, etc. It's best understood in that context. The GOP is never going to win states like Taxachusetts by selling out - but it sure can easily lose lots of Red Nation states if it tries to sell out to Blue Nation.
It USED to be...then Califonia and the Northeast took control of the party.
There are a few individual pro-2a dems out there. The PARTY though is solid ASD, and as long as you vote in the general election for ANY dem, that dem will be voting for Henry Waxman as commerce chair, and John Conyors as judiciary chair. Conyors is from inner city Detroit, and Waxman is from Hollywood.
The Supreme Court said, in U.S. v. Miller, that for a firearm to be protected it must be of a type that would have some reasonable relationship to a well-regulated [i.e. well-functioning] militia. The court deferred judgement on whether a sawed-off shotgun would qualify to the lower court; the government settled the case before it could get there.
There's a reason for the "militia" bit in the Second Amendment, and that's to make clear it's not about "hunting or sporting purposes".
Maybe the Dems used to be pro-gun, but the GOP (as a whole), has ALWAYS been pro-gun. I love when the Lincoln-haters RINOs here scream how the GOP destroyed the bill of rights. Just so happened the Union Republican vets were out founding the NRA when the southern DemocRATs were busy starting the KKK instead. The GOP put a pro-gun plank in their very FIRST national platform (the 1856 campaign, where a majority of Republicans weren't even conservative yet), and they've kept in there even since:
"The dearest Constitutional rights of the people... have been fraudulently and violently taken from them. Their Territory has been invaded by an armed force; spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced; The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been infringed.... as a state of the Union, with her present Free Constitution,as at once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights to bear [arms] and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now raging...the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction"
-- Republican National Platform, Adopted WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1856, in Philadelphia, PA.
Since you as such a genius, care to explain to me why the DemocRAT Party has control of the 'black vote' then?
1) RINOs within the GOP attack "their" party's record on the bill of rights, working with leftist Democrat organizations like Ebony to lie about the GOP and smear 19th century black Republicans (Booker Washington, Fredderick Douglas, and so forth), they also like to claim guys like Lincoln were white supremists and that the KKK is a Republican organization-- and hide the record of racist Democrats oppressing blacks. They even work with the Democrats to cover up the fact that conservative Republicans like Everett Dirksen passed the civil rights act-- instead they agree with the Democrats who constantly bring up the fact that Barry Goldwater voted against it (and refuse to acknowledge Goldwater later apologized for that and said it was wrong. Some RINOs even attack the civil rights act and call Martin Luther King a communist.
2)The GOP lost control of the Republican vote in the 1930s when FDR fooled blacks into thinking the Republicans left them desolate and he would support their causes and make sure they get good jobs and become self-suffient (a baldfaced lie, FDR was for welfare and opposed measures to stop lynching of blacks in the south). The GOP (with the exceptions of the 1952 and 1956 election where Eisenhower got prominate blacks to work for him and won a majority of black vote) has since failed to mount a serious effort to convince blacks they support their issues. Today, alot of bigoted Republicans are obsessed with the growing "Hispanic" vote (even though a majority of hispanics vote Democrat just like blacks), and make derisive comments like "if we can get the hispanic vote, we can ELIMINATE the black political power"). Some would even support amnesty for illegal aliens over trying to get the votes of U.S. citizens who happen to be black
3) The GOP goes for this "inclusive" stuff thinking that it means they must embrace liberals, and often promotes RINO blacks within the party like Colin Powell (who is considered an "Oreo" to most blacks). They do not promote or help the campaigns of grassroot black candidates like Sunny Warren and Alan Keyes, or feature them in party rallies. As a result, even though 30% of blacks consider themselves "very or somewhat conservative", there are VERY FEW elected black conservatives in the GOP to spread the message to the black communities.
Does that help?
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