Gun issues in the election

Short answer? Both McCain and his election staff policy wonks are "country club elitists": at best centrist Republicans and not Conservative at all. He isn't talking about guns because he doesn't think that the Second Amendment is particularly important and his staff wonks don't think the issue will pick up any votes for him.

There are two other elements in play: McCain isn't interested in playing to the American gun owners because he doesn't think they have anywhere else to go (it's not like Obama is offering a better deal, after all); and he almost certainly has sponsorship of gun control bills on his short list of "bipartisan" bones to throw a Pelosi/Reid congress, to encourage them to pass his own pet legislation.

It says a lot about the leadership and ideals vaccuum in the Republican Party that this loser is the best we can do.

"It says a lot about the leadership and ideals vacuum in the Republican Party that this loser is the best we can do."

Ditto.

"It says a lot about the leadership and ideals vaccuum in the Republican Party that this loser is the best we can do."

When they loose their collective asses in Nov maybe then the party will wake up and realize that the party needs to be rebuilt and get back to real conservative stances.

We need Joe the Gun Owner to pin Obama down on the Second Amendment. It might swing some of the gun owners that mistakenly support him.

If Obama supports 2A and (now) he takes Heller's side against DC, then why isn't he calling for the revocation of Chicago's similar ban?

Does he believe that the Second Amendment is incorporated against the States? Does he support his Chicago constituents right to keep and bear arms?

David, it's slightly off topic from this post, but I wonder if you could do us all a favor?

First, I'd love to see something from you where you speculate on whether we will see something like HR 1022 passed by the new Democratic Congress. They don't have to worry about a veto anymore.

Second, assuming HR 1022 passed, I'd love to see an analysis of what the real impact would be. The old Clinton gun ban ended up being pretty ineffectual, but HR 1022 seems to have a lot more bite.

@ David McCLeary: "When they loose their collective asses in Nov maybe then the party will wake up and realize that the party needs to be rebuilt and get back to real conservative stances."

Yeah...like 1994. We saw how long that lasted.

Good point Tim

Obama stated: "I will not take your shotgun away. I will not take your rifle away. I won't take your handgun away."

Translation:

I will not take your [non-semiautomatic, holding no more than two-shots (overunder), non-pistol-grip, non-folding stock, for legitimate "sporting" purposes only] shotgun away. I will not take your [single-shot, bolt-action, non-pistol-grip, non-folding stock, non-detachable-magazine, for legitimate "sporting" purposes only, not capable of using any jacketed center-fire rounds] rifle away. I won't take your [non-semiautomatic, no larger than .22 caliber, holding no more than 6 rounds, for legitimate "sporting" purposes only, registered, licensed, stored disassembled in a locked safe and with a trigger lock] handgun away."

At 0756 PDT, CNBC "teased" a segment about the gun manufacturing sector being up-market in a down economy.

I didn't hang around the TeeVee to watch it.

Darn, I can't find it now, but someone somewhere pointed out the perfect response by Obama, he'd say that they both support "closing the gun show loophole", and how whoever won, he would hope they could work together next year on it.

Obama's not hiding his desires for a new AW ban (e.g. in his Denver acceptance speech or web site (or the Democratic platform, which he had a large hand in drawing)), He clearly thinks he has a little room here for "reasonable gun safety" measures "we all can agree on"....

I'm personally more concerned with McCain's "lock up your safety" position, but the point here is that McCain is fairly vulnerable on this issue, he's even said he'd consider an AW ban (probably just being in Senator mode). NRA last rated him a "C" I think, and the GOA an F. It's no accident the NRA's endorsement was last minute and came long after they started their anti-Obama campaign.

- Harold

McCain simply can't afford to bring it up. He is cleaner than Obama on the issue, but filthy with guilt is still filthy with guilt even if someone else is filthier.

The RNC is in for one king-hell of a rude surprise the day the Democrats can field a candidate for President who has real pro-gun credentials. An awful lot of gun-owners are one-issue voters, and I think I speak for a lot of them as well as for myself when I say that I'm awful sick of being seen as a vote farm by the Republicans. Gun owners were the margin of victory in the last two Presidential elections, we were integral to the shift of both houses of Congress into the Republicans' hands (since pissed away along with a lot of other good works), and we deserve much better than we've been getting.