Richardson, Guns, and the NRA

[Tejanocrat]

Whether you are pro-gun-rights or pro-gun-control (and I know that there are people who feel strongly about both positions here), if you have any interest in the issue at all, you should know that Bill Richardson's views on the topic set him apart from the other candidates.

Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on your perspective on the gun issue.

Here is some information on Richardson's views:

From The Nation:

"Richardson's a very politically astute individual," says Robert Goode, NRA regional representative for West Texas and New Mexico. "He knows you're beating your head against a wall when you go after the firearms issue. And he backs his words with his votes." Goode continues that, if a candidate like Richardson ran for the presidency, he believes the NRA would step back and not take a partisan stance on the election. Goode's colleague Charles Weisleder, a 70-year-old NRA lobbyist, agrees. "Richardson," says Weisleder, a bald man smiling broadly over coffee at an Albuquerque Shoney's, "got a lot of gun votes because of what he said to us. A lot of people are driven by the firearms issue."

{Here's some context from earlier in the article}: Proponents of gun control are dismayed by these political developments, citing evidence that New Mexico, in addition to having the open landscape that so lures gun enthusiasts, also has the nation's second-highest per capita homicide rate as well as a youth suicide rate twice the national average--two-thirds of these suicides are carried out with guns, most of which belong to the family of the victim. They also produce statistics (disputed by the pro-gun lobby) showing that concealed-carry laws don't help protect law-abiding civilians from violent crime, and they point out that one of the few gun-control successes in recent years was the assault-weapons ban, which, until it expired last year, helped keep extremely potent weaponry off America's streets while not limiting hunters' rights to own less powerful arms. "They're not good for public safety, and they're not good for public health," says Bill Jordan of New Mexico Voices for Children. "People don't want them, but there's a powerful gun lobby. And that's very sad."

Here's a bit from The Albuquerque Tribune:

"You said the NRA is a traditionally left-wing organization?" Dwight Van Horn said, incredulously repeating the question.

The gun rights group - traditionally not a left-wing organization, to answer the question - lent its endorsement Monday to Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat.

For governor....

But as he mulls a run for president, Richardson's history of close relations with the NRA could set him apart from other Democrats seeking the party's bid.... The NRA endorsement, announced Monday at a West Mesa shooting range where hundreds of law enforcement officers from around the world took part in an NRA-sponsored shooting championship, wasn't the first time Richardson has garnered the group's backing... "He has treated us first class," said Kayne Robinson, NRA's executive director for general operations. "What the implication of that will be in national politics is beyond my pay grade."

A news release announcing the endorsement cites Richardson's support for a law that allows New Mexico residents to carry concealed handguns with a permit.

Richardson said he has earned a concealed-carry permit himself.

"I am not packing today, though," he said, "because I have plenty of State Police officers here to protect me."

For what it's worth, I am neither a "gun grabber" nor a "gun nut."

I believe that the Second Amendment does not enshrine an unlimited right for any head-case to own any weapon he chooses without any licensing or registration, just like I I don't believe the First Amendment's freedom of speech is subject to reasonable limits, including prohibitions such as recklessly yelling "fire" in a crowded theater.

I am prepared to accept the fact that thousands of prior legal decisions going back a century have concluded that the Second Amendment guarantees a right to bear arms that can be regulated if it does not bear on a state's ability to arm its militia, but I won't go into mourning if the politically-result-oriented activists at the Supreme Court reverse a century of law to declare for the first time that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right of unregulated handgun ownership.

I post this because there has been some confusion about Richardson's position on guns and gun-control.

[Warpy]

1. NM is brsitling with guns

especially because most of the terrain is still wild. I'm talking cougar, bear, coyote, wolf, and rattlesnake wild. All those critters have been known to wander even here, into the center of the big city. People here in town call animal rescue to have them tranquilized and removed. People in the boonies don't have that luxury. They fire warning shots and need to be ready to shoot to kill if the animal charges.

Plus, that deer or elk in the freezer once a year might provide over half a poor family's yearly protein.

Richardson just has the western attitude toward guns, which won't win him any antigun friends in coastal cities who are sick of the damned things. It makes a great deal of sense out here, though.

[Tejanocrat]

4. So in NM, they need handguns -- particularly concealed handguns -- to hunt deer and elk? Why?

[Warpy]

5. handguns are great for the rattlesnake in the kid's sandbox

I don't like guns and I don't own any. However, NM is the state where someone with a CCW shot and killed an estranged husband who was in the process of stabbing his wife to death in a Wal Mart. In fact, that happened five blocks from me. I hate to admit stuff like that, but it happened. Her life was saved because some gun nut with a CCW acted fast.

I have retained my Boston dislike of firearms. I just understand why people have them here.

[Tejanocrat]

6. And you need to conceal the handguns because snakes are notoriously paranoid? Is that why?

[NewCon]

10. The 2nd Amendment has nothing to do with "hunting"

This imaginary threshold for gun ownership that holds all guns liable to "hunting" is completely false.

[Tejanocrat]

11. Nor does it have anything to do with personal handguns.

[hansberrym]

14. the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms

Tenche Coxe , Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 :

"As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people, duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which shall be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow-citizens, the people are confirmed by the next article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.”



http://www.davekopel.com/2A/LawRev/hk-coxe.htm

[Warpy]

7. Try reading the whole post sometime

You might actually learn something you didn't know before.

[Stop Cornyn]

2. .

delete

[Stop Cornyn]

9. What I meant to say was Richardson is too extreme, but supporting an anti-gun-regulation candidate

can have some positive affects to balance the negative affects in a reasonable trade off.

I prefer more gun regulation than what Richardson would allow, but not as much gun regulation as Obama has supported in the past:

I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities, and that our leaders must say so in the face of the gun manfuacturer's lobby. But I also believe that when a gangbanger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels someone disrespected him, we have a problem of morality. Not only do ew need to punish thatman for his crime, but we need to acknowledge that there's a hole in his heart, one that government programs alone may not be able to repair.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.215 Oct 1, 2006

Ban semi-automatics, and more possession restrictions

* Principles that Obama supports on gun issues:Ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
* Increase state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
* Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks with firearms.

Source: 1998 IL State Legislative National Political Awareness Test

[maximusveritas]

3. I'm ok with being "pro-gun rights", but the NRA is a right-wing organization

They're not just pro-gun rights. They oppose any and all sensible gun control measures.

Look at the BS they spread in 2004:

http://www.nrapvf.org/News/Read.aspx?ID=4614
NRA Chief Lobbyist Chris W. Cox added, "Four years ago, NRA members went to the polls and stopped Al Gore`s plans to continue the war on America`s gun owners. But now, we face a greater threat than even the Clinton/Gore Administration posed. John Kerry and John Edwards are the most anti-gun presidential team in our country`s history.

[Tejanocrat]

8. I agree. I have no problem with gun rights (although I have less problem with reasonable gun

regulations), but the NRA is a political beast that fouls all it touches.

[benEzra]

12. Some thoughts on the issue, from this gun owner...

Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What? (written in '04, largely vindicated in '06, IMO)

Even if you don't like guns, the above may help you understand why the ban-nonhunting-guns position is so radioactive in most states.


More thoughts on gun ownership:

Zen, Not Rambo


A personal account of how the ban-people's-guns jihad pushes a lot of rural and suburban Dems away:

Alienated Rural Democrat


Like I said, you may not agree, but simply understanding will help avoid such disastrous mistakes as the 1994 Feinstein ban and the 2000/2004 debacles.



-----------------------
The Conservative Roots of U.S. Gun Control

[Stop Cornyn]

13. As a gun owner, do you think Richardson is about right where he should be or do you think he could

dial it back some and still satisfy your average gun owner?

[benEzra]

16. Depends on what you mean by "dial it back"...

Richardson is already middle-of-the-road on the issue, IMHO. He is OK with requiring a license in order to carry; he does not call for the repeal of the 1934 automatic weapons controls, the Gun Control Act of 1968, the armor-piercing bullet ban of 1986, etc.; and he would enforce the law against criminal trafficking and use. He might support background checks on private sales, depending on how such proposals were structured. What he would not do, I trust, would be to target lawful and responsible gun owners with further bans (the "assault weapon" bait-and-switch, handgun bans, and whatnot). If more bans aimed at further restricting what the average gun owner can own are what you are speaking of, though, then no, that wouldn't fly, IMO.

[Czolgosz]

15. I did not know this, but it doesn't change my thinking.