McCain on Guns
Since he’s going to be the next President, let’s review his website. His general statement:
John McCain believes that the right of law abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is a fundamental, individual Constitutional right that we have a sacred duty to protect. We have a responsibility to ensure that criminals who violate the law are prosecuted to the fullest, rather than restricting the rights of law abiding citizens. Gun control is a proven failure in fighting crime. Law abiding citizens should not be asked to give up their rights because of criminals – criminals who ignore gun control laws anyway.
A good start. I like it. As to some issues:
John McCain opposes restrictions on so-called “assault rifles” and voted consistently against such bans. Most recently he opposed an amendment to extend a ban on 19 specific firearms, and others with similar characteristics.
Good.
John McCain opposes bans on the importation of certain types of ammunition magazines and has voted against such limitations.
Still good. Wish he’d come out against import restrictions of politically incorrect self-loading rifles. He’d probably get the gun vote with that move. Just saying.
He has supported legislation requiring gun manufacturers to include gun safety devices such as trigger locks in product packaging
Not so good. Not horrible and easily forgivable.
As part of John McCain’s defense of Second Amendment rights, he cosponsored legislation to lift a ban on the law abiding citizens of the District of Columbia from exercising their Constitutional right to bear arms.
Good. Another thing I’d do if I ran his campaign is maybe file a brief in Heller.
At a time when some were trying to shut down gun shows in the name of fighting crime, John McCain tried to preserve gun shows by standardizing sales procedures. Federal law requires licensed firearm sellers at gun shows to do an instant criminal background check on purchasers while private firearm sellers at gun shows do not have to conduct such a check. John McCain introduced legislation that would require an instant criminal background check for all sales at gun shows and believes that such checks must be conducted quickly to ensure that unnecessary delays do not effectively block transactions.
Another not good. Seems to me he’s trying to woo supposed moderates.
If it comes down to it, I’d have to support McCain over the two gun banners being pimped by the Democrats. I don’t like McCain on a great deal of issues but on guns, he’s more pro-gun than either George Bush ever was.
February 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am
How about instead of the gunshow loophole, he simply supports opening up the background check system to private citizens who are selling guns to other privates. I’d like to be able to run a background check on a guy when I sell him a pistol.
February 8th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Was McCain one of the 57 Senators who signed on to the pro-Heller brief from Congress you mentioned above?
February 8th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Ben: If you open up the NICS system to the public, people who’ve never had a gun to sell will also be using it to snoop on their neighbors, co-workers, daughter’s boyfriend, etc.
February 8th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
McCain wasn’t my first choice, but when it comes to guns, he’s definitely among the good guys. Which is one of the reasons I expect the MSM to quickly forget how much they used to like the guy, now that he is the Republican Party rather than a thorn in its side, as he was in the past.
February 8th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
There’s no way I’d vote McCain. http://joelodom.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-will-not-vote-for-john-mccain.html
February 8th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
I’d like him better if he invaded and liberated California. I’ll vote for him with that hope in mind and the certain knowledge of what a Socialist Uber-State Obama or Hillary will Californicate the rest of the nation.
All y’all who don’t think it can happen are welcome to move here and see what it’s like with Rhino-Arnold-approved, no .50BMG, micro-stamping, lead-ammo ban, 10-round magazine capacity limit, 10-day wait, etc…
February 11th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Everyone (including me) says that “McCain isn’t my first choice.”
When was the last time you voted – in a national election, President, Senate, Representative, – where you thought you were voting for the best POSSIBLE person?
Did you really think either George Bush was going to be a great President? Or were you in the first case, hoping for 4 more years of Ronnie, and in the 2nd case voting against the idiot Dems?
I never thought GW would be a great President. (I haven’t been too surprised, he’s done OK – not great.) But I voted against Gore and against Kerry more than I voted for W.
At this point I always suggest that the people who are the most dissatisfied get involved and actually run for office. You have to start locally in the party system, go to the state, and work up. They always scream – even louder than they were – how they hate politicians and would never be involved. Fine. Then you get what you deserve.
Your next choice is not to run, but to get involved locally where the next generation of party hacks (excuse me elder statesmen) are trained, and make sure people getting elected locally – city county and state – agree with your stance on the second amendment. I can guarantee you that your opposition on any number of issues is engaged locally.