It seems that the gun owners' vote in Pennsylvania is too important for Barack Obama to let Hillary Rodham Clinton have the Second Amendment field to herself.
Even on the anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre.
This morning, the Obama campaign organized a conference call to trumpet an endorsement of its candidate from the American Hunters and Shooters Association, a group that tries to be a moderate alternative to larger organizations like the National Rifle Association. Group representatives on the call said he has proven he supports people's right to own guns for sporting and hunting.
They determined that on the basis of a single Senate vote: a 2006 measure by Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana that banned the confiscation of firearms in emergencies. Obama voted for the measure, which became an amendment to that year's homeland security spending bill. Clinton opposed it.
In voting for the Vitter amendment, Obama "clearly demonstrated his commitment to the Second Amendment," said the organization's president, Ray Schoenke, a former professional football player for the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins who ran as a Democrat for Maryland governor in 1998. (He was born in Hawaii, where Obama spent much of his youth.)
"We know that Senator Obama gets it. To say that he is an elitist is patently ridiculous," said Schoenke.
His group, however, doesn't exactly take the hardest line against gun control. Its Web site says it supports "reasonable gun safety proposals" such as background checks for gun purchases and bans on assault weapons and "cop killer" bullets.
For its part, the Clinton campaign promptly e-mailed a statement citing a report in the Politico that Obama, as a state Senate candidate in 1996, had supported state legislation to ban handguns. "It’s awfully hard to shoot a gun if you’re not allowed to have one," said Matt McKenna, Clinton's Montana state director.
Not that any of this will come up in tonight's debate in Philadelphia, of course. Both Obama and Clinton will probably just let it rest.
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