RF recently wondered aloud – OK in writing – when the GOP candidates will be asked about the second amendment and gun rights. Gun Owners of America board member Tim Macy’s not waiting. In an opinion piece at newswithviews.com, he reports that he’s already looked at the field. “As the Gun Owners of America’s Board of Directors looks at the Republican candidates running to unseat radical anti-gun President Obama, we see several who have strong pro-gun backgrounds. Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman all have solid pro-gun records and deserve a hard look from pro-gunners.” He’s also found one candidate in particular wanting…

I assume you read the header, so you won’t have to guess who that might be.

At least one frontrunner candidate stands in contrast with a decidedly mixed record on the gun issue. While Mitt Romney likes to “talk the pro-gun talk,” he has not always walked the walk.

“The Second Amendment protects the individual right of lawful citizens to keep and bear arms. I strongly support this essential freedom,” Romney assures gun owners these days.

But this is the same Mitt Romney who, as governor, promised not to do anything to “chip away” at Massachusetts’ extremely restrictive gun laws.

“We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them,” he said during a gubernatorial debate. “I won’t chip away at them; I believe they protect us and provide for our safety.”

Even worse, Romney signed a law to permanently ban many semi-automatic firearms. “These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense,” Romney said in 2004. “They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.”

Click over to read the full piece. Macy’s also not happy (nor is he likely surprised) that Romney’s conspicuously avoided GOA’s candidate questionnaire like Michael Moore avoids bathtubs.

Herman “gun control is up to the states” Cain has his share of ‘splainin’ to do on the issue, too.

Sure, it will be nice to hear actual questions in the next televised candidate “debate,” but does anyone really expect Romney to spout anything but ardent boilerplate support for the second amendment and the right to keep and bear arms? It’s hard to imagine him having a Mondale-type “I’ll raise your taxes” moment and promise a national five-day waiting period plus a scary black rifle ban. He’s far too practiced, polished and prepared for that.

All voters can really do is judge by his actions while in office. Good luck with that, Mitt.

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9 COMMENTS

  1. If mitt the COMMIE becomes president, we’re all screwed and can kiss our guns good bye forever.

    • Joe, I appreciate your sentiment about Romney the Chameleon, but I’m not too worried about it. Sure, most of his ilk would love few things more that to take away our guns, but that means they’d actually have to try to take away our guns. None of them, I hope and trust, are that profoundly stupid. Such a move would evoke an immune response in this country’s body politic like the world has never seen before. As Vanderboegh is fond of saying, “When democracy becomes tyranny, we still get to vote.”

      • Except that when we have a tyranny, all 45 million (or so) gun owners get to cast their votes in lead. Unless the government wants to start nuking the US, the military and police wouldn’t be able to stop 45 million armed insurgents – just look at how hard of a time they’re having with just a few thousand in Iraq.

  2. I’d rather shave my eyeballs with a straight razor than vote for Willard Mitt Romney. Yes, Willard. He was named after that rat in the movie. To all you other Willards out there, no disrespect is intended. Mea culpa.

  3. More than anything, I get the sense that Romney is an opportunist and goes with the polls. In MA he went anti-gun since it fit the state. Otherwise, I find most politicos anti-gun at heart since it seems to them a right not compatible with the corporatist police-nanny state that seems to be the modern-era popular politico value among American politicians.

  4. We need Mitt Romney now like we needed John McCain in 2008. If we’re going to vote for a Republican candidate we should at least vote for one who is solidly on the republican side of the spectrum.

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