DNC Distorting McCain’s Position on Gun Shows
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in DNC, Guns and Ammo, McCainNice to see the Democratic National Committee is committing politics as usual, distorting the truth for political gain. The DNC wants voters to believe John McCain doesn’t support closing the gun show loophole – even though he literally wrote the legislation on it. From the Baltimore Sun:
During a briefing this afternoon, Democratic pollster Allan Rivlin said that swing voters in 17 states reacted negatively when they learned that McCain no longer supported closing the gun show loophole and opposed any new gun control laws.
In fact, McCain continues to support closing the gun show loophole, which he successfully co-sponsored with Sen. Joseph Lieberman. DNC officials insisted that McCain no longer supports closing the loophole, arguing that he was quoted saying that he does not support new gun control laws following the shootings at Virginia Tech.
“If you tell voters that he doesn’t support closing the gun show loophole, that’s misleading,” said Matt Bennett, who co-founded Americans for Gun Safety and worked closely with McCain and Lieberman to help pass their amendment in the Senate.
McCain also appeared in advertisements in movie theaters around the country about closing the gun show loophole and advocating for gun safety - he urged people to keep their guns locked at home. His position on guns is spelled out on his campaign web site at www.johnmccain.com.
Why is the DNC lying? I think this is part of a general Democratic strategy to paint McCain as a typical “crazy Republican” and hurt his appeal with moderates. But McCain isn’t a typical Republican (crazy or otherwise) and that’s going to make it as difficult for Democrats to run against him as it is for many Republicans to support him. I imagine this won’t be the last time we see the DNC distorting McCain’s positions.
April 11th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Maybe because it makes McCain come out and state his position explicitly. Obviously there’s something of a conflict between supporting closing this loophole and not supporting any new gun control laws. Objectively speaking, they CAN’T both be true.
If I read you correctly, McCain’s position is that he supports closing this loophole, but other than that no other new gun control laws. And that sounds about right to me. But I BET it doesn’t sound about right to some other folks, namely those who enjoy limited regulations on gun transactions at gun shows. Thanks for clearing this up for all of us.