Huckabee Gets It
Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee also appeared on Hewitt’s show and displayed a more tolerant attitude, showing that he knows guns and understands the Second Amendment in a way that Romney and Gingrich plainly do not:
HH:…What about assault weapons, or what is called assault weapons in the law? Should Americans be allowed to have them?
MH: Absolutely. Americans ought to be allowed to have anything they want to have, as long as they’re law abiding, legal citizens. The 2nd Amendment was not there for hunting. I get so offended when Democrats talk about it as if you don’t need an assault weapon to hunt. Well truthfully, most Democrats wouldn’t know an assault weapon from a BB gun. I’m a hunter, I have been my whole life. But the 2nd Amendment is not just about hunting. It’s about protecting your family, your property, and it’s honestly about defending ourselves against a tyrannical government, should it ever go haywire on us.
HH: What about machine guns, Governor?
MH: I’ve got friends who own them. They have the legal process to own them. But once again, I’m not afraid of a law abiding citizen owning anything. I’m afraid of a criminal getting his hands on a gun. That’s where the crackdown needs to be. This country’s gone crazy. It’s cracking down on law abiding citizens, and turning their heads at people who break the law. That’s the polar opposite.
Huckabee’s broadminded attitude is supported by the facts:
Pursuant to the
National Firearms Act of 1934, the purchase of a machine gun requires a months-long process involving a background check and letter of authorization from local law enforcement (
Form 4), plus fingerprinting, registration of the owner and the gun, and a $200 tax. There has never been an instance of a legally-owned, registered machine gun being used in a violent crime, except for the lone case of one Ohio police officer’s misuse of a personally-owned gun.
An especially disturbing part of the Gingrich interview was his cagey language about the Clinton ban:
“there are a number of weapons under that law that are not assault weapons.” The statement is literally true, but it implies that
some of the weapons under that law really are “assault weapons.” To the contrary, a real “assault weapon” is a type of military rifle which can fire automatically.
None of the guns in the Clinton ban were automatics, and the gun prohibitionists’ push for “assault weapon” bans has nothing to do with real assault weapons.
All of the covered guns functioned just like other firearms: if you press the trigger, the gun will fire one, and only one, bullet. The guns were banned only because they were cosmetically incorrect; they have a military or futuristic appearance, which makes some people who are ignorant about guns (e.g., Gingrich) imagine that they function like military guns.
And while Gingrich replied “Right” to the proposition that some high caliber guns ought to be banned and some others allowed, so-called “assault weapons” are not “high caliber” guns; the guns banned by Clinton were intermediate caliber.
Bob Dole, after years of good work on behalf of the Second Amendment in Congress, threw away the opportunity to be endorsed by the NRA in 1996 when he endorsed banning so-called “assault weapons.” Newt Gingrich has taken a step in the same direction.
Unreliable Friends of Convenience
Mitt Romney’s attitudes on guns — like his double flip-flop on abortion — appear to have more to do with political expediency than with conviction. While an expedient and cynical “friend” like Mitt Romney would probably be better for gun owners than would a sincere and fierce enemy like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, it is still worth wondering what President Romney would do if his political calculus changed yet again.
George H. W. Bush was another gun-rights friend of convenience, who (like Romney) bought himself a lifetime NRA membership shortly before running for president. And when circumstances made it convenient for Bush to become a gun-control advocate instead of a Second Amendment defender (only a few weeks after he took the oath of office and swore to defend the Constitution), Bush switched sides, and spent the remainder of his administration promoting restrictions on the Second Amendment.
Ever since “the revolt at Cincinnati” — the 1977 NRA Convention when pro-rights members seized power from an Old Guard that wanted to get the NRA out of political advocacy — there has been an easy way to predict who will win the presidential election. If the Republican is endorsed by the NRA Political Victory Fund, he wins (Reagan 1980 and 1984, G.H.W. Bush 1988, G.W. Bush 2000, 2004). If the NRA does not endorse the Republican, he loses (G.H.W. Bush 1992, Dole 1996).
The Democratic Option
While most of the Democratic presidential aspirants are awful on the Second Amendment, the notable exception is New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. As a U.S. representative and as governor, he compiled an impeccable record. Unlike Governor Romney, Governor Richardson took a leading role in promoting pro-rights reforms. The most significant of Richardson’s successes was “shall issue” concealed-carry licensing, so that adults who pass a background check and a safety class can obtain a permit to carry a handgun for lawful protection. His record contrasts with that of former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, who signed a good bill which prohibited local gun bans, but who
opposed “shall issue” and prevented it from becoming law in Wisconsin.
A blemish on Richardson’s gun rights record is his service as Bill Clinton’s Ambassador to the United Nations, when he failed to mount a strong opposition to the development of the international gun-control agenda — although it is doubtful that Richardson had any choice in the matter, given the Clinton administration’s fervent stance on the matter.
If the Republicans nominated Giuliani and the Democrats Richardson, the NRA would be crazy not to support Richardson with everything in its political arsenal. More generally, as the
New York Sun reported on April 5, “the thinking within the organization is that it would eagerly endorse a consistently pro-gun Democrat over a Republican who has been inconsistent in protecting Second Amendment rights.” Republican realists who want to win in 2008 would do well to start looking for candidates whose records demonstrate that they understand and will reliably defend the right to arms.
< Back 1 2 
