Giuliani's a long shot to win over NRA
C&P
WASHINGTON - Rudy Giuliani takes his presidential pitch to the National Rifle Association Friday -- a group he once likened to "extremists" -- but his past record as the Republican Party's biggest gun-control booster will make it almost impossible for him to win broad support, activists say.
In fact, a scheduling coincidence Friday shows just how hard it is for Giuliani to escape his past: He speaks to an NRA meeting here on the very same day his 2000 lawsuit against gun-makers goes before a federal appeals court in New York.
Giuliani has tried hard as a presidential candidate to claim a political conversion on guns -- from a big-city mayor who once called for one-size-fits-all national gun laws to a Second Amendment supporter who thinks those decisions should be left to local governments.
But as the head of one gun-rights group said this week, "We're not buying it."
If Giuliani had said "'On reflection, I shouldn't have supported the national gun ban,' you know, I'd have a lot less heartburn. But he's never really recanted," said Larry Pratt of the 300,000-member Gun Owners of America.
It doesn't help Giuliani that the newest Republican in the race, Fred Thompson, has embraced the gun issue as a way to stand apart from the GOP pack, as the one top-tier Southerner who claims to speak the language of gun owners.
Thompson campaigned at a Florida gun show this past weekend, and recently attacked Giuliani's New York City as a "big bully" trying to dictate how the rest of the country should deal with guns.
In many ways, Giuliani's real hope today isn't to win over huge swaths of single-issue gun voters, but to neutralize fervent opposition to him, mainly by stressing how he used gun laws to reduce shootings by 75 percent in New York. He is expected to focus on enforcing laws already on the books, targeting criminals and not law-abiding citizens, and stressing the need for mandatory sentences for gun crime, aides said.
"I think right now, the best approach is to focus on what could be done at the state and local level to deal with criminals who use guns," Giuliani said Thursday.
His tough-on-terror credentials from 9/11 also might play well. "People who love guns hate terrorists too," said Republican pollster Whit Ayres.
Still, even 9/11 won't erase the most strident anti-gun stances in Giuliani's past, when he was a vocal supporter of President Bill Clinton's assault weapons ban. He blasted gun-makers as "an industry which profits from the suffering of others" when he filed a lawsuit to hold manufacturers liable for gun crime. That lawsuit will be before appeals judges today in New York who will decide whether it can go forward.
Also speaking at the event are Thompson and John McCain, who angered pro-gun activists with his support for campaign-finance reform, and Mitt Romney will appear by video. The NRA has criticized Romney for signing an assault weapons ban as Massachusetts governor.
The good news for Giuliani is that pollsters estimate a relatively small percentage of Republican primary voters will vote solely on the gun issue.
The bad news for him is that he already risks writing off other small but vocal groups of single-issue voters, such as anti-abortion Republicans and those strongly opposed to expanding gay rights. At some point, all those small groups add up to a big part of the GOP base.
I am proud to say that I am one of those "relatively small percentage of Republican primary voters" who he must concern himself with.
Trinity +++
WASHINGTON - Rudy Giuliani takes his presidential pitch to the National Rifle Association Friday -- a group he once likened to "extremists" -- but his past record as the Republican Party's biggest gun-control booster will make it almost impossible for him to win broad support, activists say.
In fact, a scheduling coincidence Friday shows just how hard it is for Giuliani to escape his past: He speaks to an NRA meeting here on the very same day his 2000 lawsuit against gun-makers goes before a federal appeals court in New York.
Giuliani has tried hard as a presidential candidate to claim a political conversion on guns -- from a big-city mayor who once called for one-size-fits-all national gun laws to a Second Amendment supporter who thinks those decisions should be left to local governments.
But as the head of one gun-rights group said this week, "We're not buying it."
If Giuliani had said "'On reflection, I shouldn't have supported the national gun ban,' you know, I'd have a lot less heartburn. But he's never really recanted," said Larry Pratt of the 300,000-member Gun Owners of America.
It doesn't help Giuliani that the newest Republican in the race, Fred Thompson, has embraced the gun issue as a way to stand apart from the GOP pack, as the one top-tier Southerner who claims to speak the language of gun owners.
Thompson campaigned at a Florida gun show this past weekend, and recently attacked Giuliani's New York City as a "big bully" trying to dictate how the rest of the country should deal with guns.
In many ways, Giuliani's real hope today isn't to win over huge swaths of single-issue gun voters, but to neutralize fervent opposition to him, mainly by stressing how he used gun laws to reduce shootings by 75 percent in New York. He is expected to focus on enforcing laws already on the books, targeting criminals and not law-abiding citizens, and stressing the need for mandatory sentences for gun crime, aides said.
"I think right now, the best approach is to focus on what could be done at the state and local level to deal with criminals who use guns," Giuliani said Thursday.
His tough-on-terror credentials from 9/11 also might play well. "People who love guns hate terrorists too," said Republican pollster Whit Ayres.
Still, even 9/11 won't erase the most strident anti-gun stances in Giuliani's past, when he was a vocal supporter of President Bill Clinton's assault weapons ban. He blasted gun-makers as "an industry which profits from the suffering of others" when he filed a lawsuit to hold manufacturers liable for gun crime. That lawsuit will be before appeals judges today in New York who will decide whether it can go forward.
Also speaking at the event are Thompson and John McCain, who angered pro-gun activists with his support for campaign-finance reform, and Mitt Romney will appear by video. The NRA has criticized Romney for signing an assault weapons ban as Massachusetts governor.
The good news for Giuliani is that pollsters estimate a relatively small percentage of Republican primary voters will vote solely on the gun issue.
The bad news for him is that he already risks writing off other small but vocal groups of single-issue voters, such as anti-abortion Republicans and those strongly opposed to expanding gay rights. At some point, all those small groups add up to a big part of the GOP base.
I am proud to say that I am one of those "relatively small percentage of Republican primary voters" who he must concern himself with.
Trinity +++
0
-
Did the NRA invite Ron Paul or Mike Huckabee to speak?
Giuliani and McCain make the leadership of the NRA look good.
Thompson gives them a measure of credibility as it appears he is in agreement with them on most issues.
Paul and Huckabee make them look like the Brady Bunch.0 -
They are the brady bunch. I wonder what the nra will say about those two now? Maybe they have seen the error of their ways type comments. May I sell you whatever interest I might have in Fort Knox? 0 -
If you really care about your gun rights, the constitution (especially the 2nd amendment, and the parts about the fed govt having the authority to regulate immigration, and a duty to protect all states from invasion), there is no better candidate than Ron Paul.
Ron Paul has an even better pro gun record than Fred Thompson, and way better than that douche bag from new york capitalizing on thedeaths of 2,000 people he "governed"0 -
Tommy Thompson is very pro gun. Not too late to draft him.....
This election will be the lesser of two evils, that's for sure !0 -
Ah..the modern age.
14 anti-gun votes qualifies Thompson as 'very pro-gun'...jeeze.0 -
So what... As I recall the NRA supported Bob Taft here in Ohio and the SOB turned out to be more Anti-gun than any Democrat the ever lived.... BTW we have our 1st pro gun Governor in nearly two decades and gues what...Yep, he is a freaking Democrat!!!
Look at the freaking candidate not the freaking party!!! All we need is to have a Bob Freaking Taft as president!!!0 -
the NRA is a joke anymore.
GOA or JPFO is the way to go.0 -
quote:Originally posted by ruger270man
the NRA is a joke anymore.
GOA or JPFO is the way to go.
JPFO had to look it up!!!! Hmmm. I had no idea...
Don't forget there are local groups that need your support as well..Buckeyes.... http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/index.php0 -
I don't know which is more pitiful.....the various Anti-Gun republican canidates tripping over themselves to get an NRA endorsement..........or the eventual nationally-televised democrat "hunting trip"
Can't wait to see Obama decked out in his blaze orange, $1500 shotgun in hand.....0
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
9 comments