|
Dem hopefuls mostly mum on gun issue |
|
By Sam Youngman
|
|
Posted: 04/17/07 08:44 PM [ET] |
Democratic White House hopefuls yesterday struggled with whether they should embrace increased gun control measures following Monday’s horrific massacre at Virginia Tech.
Campaigns offered nuanced responses to questions on the issue, indicating an effort to assuage their base without offending Red State America.
“In much of America, gun ownership is part of a way of life,” a spokesman for former Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) said in a statement. “John Edwards believes that the Second Amendment protects gun ownership and that we must keep guns out of criminals’ hands.”
All of the candidates were quick to issue messages of condolence, but none rushed to call for stricter federal gun control laws Monday or yesterday.
In fact, a review of the issues section on each candidate’s campaign website showed no mention of gun control.
This stands in marked contrast to the records and past statements of most of the candidates.
In 1999 and 2000, then-first lady and New York Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told a Newspaper Association of America convention that she supported a number of strict gun control laws.
“I believe we need a comprehensive plan to stop gun violence, and it is one of the reasons I am running for the Senate,” Clinton said, according to contemporary reports. “We have to do more to stand up to those who refuse to believe the reality that guns do kill and that common-sense gun measures can make a difference.”
At the time those statements were made, current presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was considered to be the odds-on favorite to win the Republican nomination and run against Clinton for the Senate.
Yesterday, the Clinton campaign essentially said her record should speak for itself.
“Senator Clinton has a long record on these issues,” her campaign said in a statement. “Today she believes that our focus should be on the victims and their families, and that we should allow law enforcement to conduct its investigation.”
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) also came under fire from anti-gun control groups for votes he cast while in the Illinois state Senate.
In 2004, as a Senate candidate, Obama voted against a bill in the state Senate allowing residents to use self-defense as a means to seek the dismissal of criminal charges brought about as a result of local ordinances.
The bill was in response to a man who faced criminal penalties after he shot an alleged intruder in a town that had passed local ordinances prohibiting private gun ownership.
At the time, Obama said he was voting to give local townships the capabilities to determine their own laws, according to reports.
Obama’s campaign said yesterday that the senator continues to favor both “commonsense” solutions and gun owners’ rights.
“Barack Obama believes we can respect the rights of law-abiding gun owners and sportsmen, and still enact commonsense measures to keep assault weapons off our streets and guns out of the hands of criminals,” a campaign spokeswoman said in a statement. “For while the massacre in Virginia shocked the nation, young people are losing their lives every day to gun violence. Taking assault weapons off the streets and closing the gun show loophole can stop some of the senseless carnage.”
Most of the field favors President Bill Clinton’s assault-weapons ban, mandatory gun locks and revising the way gun shows are treated under the law.
The candidates who were in the Senate in July 2005 all voted against the Firearm Manufacturers Protection Bill, a bill sponsored by Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) exempting gun manufacturers from civil and criminal liability.
In the past, much of the field has been willing, if not eager, to speak on their record of opposing Big Gun lobbyists.
But none of the candidates have been vocal on the issue since joining the race.
|
