fasterbusa
05-19-2008, 02:28 AM
Something for us gun people to pay attention too.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080518/ts_alt_afp/usvoteguns
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AFP) - The powerful US gun lobby has painted the 2008 presidential race as a showdown over the right to bear arms, but the election could also prove to be a key test of its political firepower.
At its annual meeting in Kentucky this weekend, the National Rifle Association focused most of its energy on gearing up its members to defeat the Democratic nominee in November, whether it is Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
NRA leaders warned that both risk eroding gun ownership rights. But their influence is hampered by a tough national climate for Republicans, after eight years of President George W. Bush, and a mixed record on past campaigns.
"Your presence here today will send a very strong message to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: we're watching," said Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, at the group's leadership forum Friday.
He added that he expects the 6,500 people who attended the forum and the other 4.3 million NRA members to have a "very strong presence at the voting booth" in November.
While the group will not officially endorse a candidate until after the parties' national conventions this summer, it sent strong signals this weekend that likely Republican nominee John McCain would get its backing -- despite some differences with him in the past.
Addressing the NRA conference Friday, McCain sought to highlight his conservative credentials as he courted the gun owners' votes.
"For more than two decades, I've opposed efforts to ban guns, ban ammunition, ban magazines, and dismiss gun owners as some kind of fringe group unwelcome in 'modern' America," he said.
The NRA was widely credited with helping the Republicans take control of Congress in the 1994 election and make gains in 2000 and 2004, including Bush's election and re-election.
In 2006, the NRA's political arm boasted wins in 85 percent of the 276 US Senate and House of Representative races.
But Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said those numbers are misleading. He said most of those races included safe incumbents, and the NRA struggled in expensive battleground campaigns.
"They've never been as strong as they pretended to be," said Helmke.
Like the NRA, the Brady Campaign is in the early stages of targeting which of November's congressional and governor's races to become involved in.
Another gun control group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, began running ads in Kentucky this weekend in advance of that state's primary election on Tuesday and coinciding with the NRA conference.
The commercial features quotes from Clinton, Obama and McCain calling for background checks on people who purchase firearms at gun shows -- something the NRA opposes.
McCain acknowledged the divide on this issue but said the "real differences" were with the Democrats, saying Obama and Clinton had voted as senators "to ban guns or ban ammunition or to allow gun makers to be sued out of existence."
Other Republican speakers joined McCain and focused their rhetoric on Obama, who is currently leading his race with Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
Karl Rove, Bush's former political director, said Obama has been disingenuous by claiming to support the second amendment, which gives Americans the right to bear arms, while voting against the NRA's positions.
Obama countered in a press conference Friday that it was not inconsistent to back people's right to hunt and protect themselves while also pushing for "some common sense gun laws so that we don't have kids being shot on the streets of cities like Chicago."
The debate underscores a weakness Obama has exhibited throughout the campaign -- connecting with white, rural voters, many of whom are gun owners.
He has been haunted by his own remarks last month at a San Francisco fundraiser, in which he said small-town voters have become "bitter" over job losses and "cling to guns or religion or antipathy."
The NRA handed out stickers that read: "I'm a bitter gun owner and I vote."
Rove, who emphasized Obama's "bitter" comments, urged NRA members to fight on McCain's behalf because "victory in November is not going to be easy."
"In this election, the stakes are very, very high when it comes to the constitution and the second amendment," he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080518/ts_alt_afp/usvoteguns
LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (AFP) - The powerful US gun lobby has painted the 2008 presidential race as a showdown over the right to bear arms, but the election could also prove to be a key test of its political firepower.
At its annual meeting in Kentucky this weekend, the National Rifle Association focused most of its energy on gearing up its members to defeat the Democratic nominee in November, whether it is Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
NRA leaders warned that both risk eroding gun ownership rights. But their influence is hampered by a tough national climate for Republicans, after eight years of President George W. Bush, and a mixed record on past campaigns.
"Your presence here today will send a very strong message to Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton: we're watching," said Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, at the group's leadership forum Friday.
He added that he expects the 6,500 people who attended the forum and the other 4.3 million NRA members to have a "very strong presence at the voting booth" in November.
While the group will not officially endorse a candidate until after the parties' national conventions this summer, it sent strong signals this weekend that likely Republican nominee John McCain would get its backing -- despite some differences with him in the past.
Addressing the NRA conference Friday, McCain sought to highlight his conservative credentials as he courted the gun owners' votes.
"For more than two decades, I've opposed efforts to ban guns, ban ammunition, ban magazines, and dismiss gun owners as some kind of fringe group unwelcome in 'modern' America," he said.
The NRA was widely credited with helping the Republicans take control of Congress in the 1994 election and make gains in 2000 and 2004, including Bush's election and re-election.
In 2006, the NRA's political arm boasted wins in 85 percent of the 276 US Senate and House of Representative races.
But Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said those numbers are misleading. He said most of those races included safe incumbents, and the NRA struggled in expensive battleground campaigns.
"They've never been as strong as they pretended to be," said Helmke.
Like the NRA, the Brady Campaign is in the early stages of targeting which of November's congressional and governor's races to become involved in.
Another gun control group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, began running ads in Kentucky this weekend in advance of that state's primary election on Tuesday and coinciding with the NRA conference.
The commercial features quotes from Clinton, Obama and McCain calling for background checks on people who purchase firearms at gun shows -- something the NRA opposes.
McCain acknowledged the divide on this issue but said the "real differences" were with the Democrats, saying Obama and Clinton had voted as senators "to ban guns or ban ammunition or to allow gun makers to be sued out of existence."
Other Republican speakers joined McCain and focused their rhetoric on Obama, who is currently leading his race with Clinton for the Democratic nomination.
Karl Rove, Bush's former political director, said Obama has been disingenuous by claiming to support the second amendment, which gives Americans the right to bear arms, while voting against the NRA's positions.
Obama countered in a press conference Friday that it was not inconsistent to back people's right to hunt and protect themselves while also pushing for "some common sense gun laws so that we don't have kids being shot on the streets of cities like Chicago."
The debate underscores a weakness Obama has exhibited throughout the campaign -- connecting with white, rural voters, many of whom are gun owners.
He has been haunted by his own remarks last month at a San Francisco fundraiser, in which he said small-town voters have become "bitter" over job losses and "cling to guns or religion or antipathy."
The NRA handed out stickers that read: "I'm a bitter gun owner and I vote."
Rove, who emphasized Obama's "bitter" comments, urged NRA members to fight on McCain's behalf because "victory in November is not going to be easy."
"In this election, the stakes are very, very high when it comes to the constitution and the second amendment," he said.