This weekend, Hillary Rodham Clinton sounded like the best friend of gun owners throughout the country after Democratic rival Barack Obama seemed to disrespect them. It’s almost as if she thought no one was going to check her Senate record.
In Indianapolis on Saturday, Clinton scolded Obama for suggesting that people in small-town Pennsylvania “cling” to guns, religion, and anti-immigrant sentiments to deal with their frustrations at economic hard times. (You may have seen a few thousand clips on cable news about this.)
“You know, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it’s a matter of Constitutional rights,” Clinton said. Moreover, she added, “People of all walks of life hunt – and they enjoy doing so because it’s an important part of their life, not because they are bitter.”
So Clinton must have spoken up for gun owners’ rights a lot during her Senate years, right?
Only if voting to extend the ban on assault weapons, require criminal background checks for purchases at gun shows, and allow lawsuits against gun manufacturers can all be considered speaking up for gun owners.
Here’s the capsule history, starting with Clinton’s first run for the Senate:
May 2000: As First Lady and first-time Senate candidate, Clinton took part in the Million Moms March, which was aimed at building support for gun control laws. She also called for licensing all new gun owners and registering all new guns.
“There's no reason we cannot do this constitutionally,” she said in a town-hall-style forum on the Today show. “And, yes, I do think people who are responsible have a right to own guns, to go hunting, do sports shooting. But that doesn’t mean that they should be indiscriminately made available to criminals, children and people who shouldn’t have them.”
August 2000: In a speech to the Democratic national convention, Clinton told a national audience: “I’ve held the hands of mothers and fathers who’ve lost their children to gun violence. It’s time to honor their pain by passing common-sense gun safety laws that keep guns out of the hands of children and criminals.”
March 2004: Clinton voted for a 10-year extension of the ban on assault weapons. The extension never became law and the ban was allowed to expire, because the measure Clinton supported was an amendment to a bill to protect gun manufacturers, which ultimately failed.
March 2004: As part of that same debate, Clinton voted for another amendment that would have required criminal background checks for all purchases at gun shows where at least 75 guns were sold.
July 2005: Clinton voted for a measure that would have expanded the ban on armor-piercing ammunition. Obama also supported it.
July 2005: Clinton voted against a bill to protect gun manufacturers and dealers from civil lawsuits. This time, the bill passed the Senate and became law. Obama also voted against it.
So even if the latest controversy sinks Obama’s candidacy and Clinton wins the Democratic nomination, she still has a bit of ground to make up with gun owners. Especially with that vote for the criminal background checks at gun shows. That measure was a sore point with gun owners’ groups for years, and Republican John McCain could just hammer her in the fall for voting for that.
Oh, wait. It was McCain’s amendment.
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Comments
I seems very strange that both of these so-called government officials, supposidly accountle to the electorate so hate the Constitution they swore to defend. I question both of their commitment to this country, and wonder if instead they are beholden to special interest (read MONEY) groups only. If only the Founding Fathers knew. What would they have done today?
Posted by: JHarper
| April 21, 2008 8:14 PM
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