John McCain's "Gun Problem"

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/john-mccains-gun-proble_b_27717.html

A front-page story in today's New York Times details how Arizona Senator John McCain is "locking up a cast of top-shelf Republican strategists, policy experts, fund-raisers, and donors" in an effort to put his bid for the Republican Presidential nomination ahead of the pack. Among the strategists joining McCain's team is former National Rifle Association top lobbyist James Jay Baker, now with a private Washington lobbying firm.

Baker's addition to this "growing kitchen cabinet" exposes one of McCain's most glaring weaknesses in his efforts to appeal to the Republican base necessary to secure the nomination: McCain has a very big problem with the pro-gun vote. They think he's a weasel and a turncoat.

McCain's "gun problem" stems from two issues: his successful campaign to enact the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform package and his failed Congressional efforts to regulate all sales at gun shows (conducted in a high-profile partnership with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and backed by a group called Americans for Gun Safety, which, by its very name, is enough to earn the instant enmity of many activist gun owners). The gun lobby and its rank and file view the campaign finance law as an outrageous infringement on their free speech rights while the effort to regulate gun show sales is viewed as a direct attack on the Second Amendment and liberty itself.

When McCain was trumpeting both of these issues, the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun organizations reacted as jilted, and increasingly, bitter lovers. In June 2001, McCain was attacked in the NRA's America's 1st Freedom magazine over his campaign finance reform package. The magazine's cover story asked, "Like to think your opinion counts? Under the guise of reforming election funding, Sen. John McCain and others are attempting to muzzle your voice concerning critical national issues--including the Second Amendment." The article adds, "McCain was led down a path by a Senate Democratic leadership that is doing all it can to keep the super-senator beholden....hey want a Senate Majority of radical Democrats, who would prove an unprecedented threat to the Second Amendment. John McCain is their Judas goat--leading the sheep to slaughter." The following month's issue warned, in an article titled "What's Happened to John McCain?," that "The gun control debate in Washington has hit center stage because Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has now become one of the premier flag carriers for the enemies of the Second Amendment."

[don954]

1. blach

radical dems? a good majority of us dems are arming ourselves, cause we have a DEEP distrust of our government, and since the police now have no duty to protect us (thanks to repub court rulings), one must be responsible for their own security.. Just because we think that one should not be able to circumvent gun background checks just because they are at a gun show, doesnt mean we want to start rounding up guns or anything, we just want to make sure criminals have as hard of a time as possible getting a gun. Your average petty thief doesnt know where to go to get black market arms... For us law-abiding folk, a instant background check doesn't even take 5 min on the computer, and we can buy anything we want from a BB gun to a BMG .50 cal semi-auto...

[izzie]

2. This guy is sure dancing as fast as he can

One can almost see the longing in his eyes for the White House.