The Political Freakshow

Romney Warns NRA Members Of Obama Getting a Second Term…Even Though Obama Has Been a Pro-Gun President!!!

Michael Conroy/Associated PressMitt Romney speaking at the National Rifle Association convention on Friday in St. Louis.

ST. LOUIS — As he works to energize the conservative base ahead of the general election, Mitt Romney came to the annual gathering of the National Rifle Association on Friday seeking support from a powerful group that has not always embraced him.

His backing while Massachusetts governor of key laws opposed by the national gun lobby – an assault weapons ban and a waiting period to buy firearms – has engendered skepticism, if not hostility, among many gun owners.

But in the speech he delivered here, Mr. Romney breezed past those issues to touch a more fundamental nerve: the gun lobby’s fear that a second term for President Obama would give him another Supreme Court appointee.

The 4.3-million-member gun group fears that a remade court could lead to restrictions on firearms.

“In his first term,” Mr. Romney’s said, “we’ve seen the president try to browbeat the Supreme Court. In a second term, he would remake it. Our freedoms would be in the hands of an Obama court, not just for four years, but for the next 40. That must not happen.’’

Before Mr. Romney spoke, a spokesman for the gun lobby, Andrew Arulanandam, said it was looking for exactly this kind of statement.

Mr. Arulanandam said that the biggest fear of N.R.A. members was that an altered Supreme Court might reverse two 5-to-4 rulings since 2008 interpreting the Second Amendment as guaranteeing a fundamental right to individuals to bear arms. The most recent ruling, the McDonald case in 2010, is seen as opening the way for challenges to local laws restricting gun ownership.

Another goal for Mr. Romney here is to close some of the cultural gap with gun owners. He was lampooned during his 2008 run for the Republican nomination for exaggerating his hunting career, at one point, when pressed, saying that the game he had experience with were rodents and rabbits, “small varmints, if you will.’’

More recently, Mr. Romney revealed that he owned a couple of firearms, and in a debate in January he described a hunting trip to Montana.

His guide on that outing was a respected sportsman, Rob Keck, who in an interview described taking Mr. Romney for two days of hunting elk and for one shooting pheasants on a private ranch.

“He admittedly didn’t grow up hunting,’’ Mr. Keck said, “but let me tell you, he accounted for a number of birds on that day.’’

So it was probably no surprise that Mr. Romney has been accompanied here by Mr. Keck, the director of conservation for Bass Pro Shops.

It remains to be seen whether hunters who view gun rights as a top issue will enthusiastically support Mr. Romney in November.

David Ross, a longtime N.R.A. member from Reading, Pa., who has been a grass-roots organizer for conservative candidates in his battleground state, was skeptical.

“Romney needs to get people like me passionate enough for his campaign to win in November, and I think that’s going to be heavy lifting,’’ said Mr. Ross, who was attending the convention with his son, Clinton, an Army reservist. “He was for an assault weapons ban when he was Massachusetts governor. What changed? And how do we know he’s not going to change back? This is the chameleonlike thinking that is my biggest fear.’’

Mitt Romney is clueless about what he is saying. President Obama has been a pro-gun president. Take a gander at what Obama has done:

August 27,2010: President Obama signed the NRA-backed “Firearms Excise Tax Improvement Act of 2010” into law, which allows firearms and ammunition manufacturers to pay excise taxes quarterly, like other companies and industries.

May 22,2009: President Obama signed the “Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009,” which contained an amendment by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) that allows for people with concealed carry permits to carry their guns in all the US National Parks. To date, guns are legal to carry in 388 national parks and wildlife refuges, with 3 still banning their entry.

Also, President Obama signed into law a bill that would allow gun owners to carry their guns on Amtrak trains.

Now, I know that there will be conservatives who will slight what I just wrote. But, believe me, if President Obama was as anti-gun as conservatives say, he wouldn’t have signed into law three bills that the NRA helped fund and vocally supported.

Mitt Romney, as always, needs to get his facts straight before criticizing President Obama. Obama has been, and continues to be, a pro-gun president. He has an F- rating from the liberal pro-gun control group Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

If he was anti-gun, they would have given him either an A+ or a B+.

Mitt, go back to the drawing board and get a new attack ready!!

[The Daily Caller / The New York Times / The Washington Post / Liberty’s Blog]