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NAGR Gun Rights Assessment of Republican Candidates

Email from NAGR ^ | 1/7/2012 | dudley brown

Posted on by from occupied ga

With the Iowa caucuses just a few days behind us, and with New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada choosing their Republican candidates soon, I wanted to write to you and give you a quick update on the NAGR Presidential Survey program.

As you know, NAGR has mailed every candidate for President an official NAGR Gun Rights Survey.

Ron Paul is the only remaining Republican candidate who has returned his survey 100% in favor of gun rights.

Over the last few weeks and months, I've asked you to call the campaigns of Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry to demand that each candidate return their gun rights survey 100% in favor of the Second Amendment.

Believe me, your calls worked. Repesentatives from each of those campaigns called NAGR offices, demanded we instruct our members and supporters to stop calling and to send them a survey.

Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry were hurt severely in Iowa because they stonewalled gun owners by refusing to return their surveys, and I think the longer that Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney ignore gun owners, the more it will hurt them as well.

Each candidate has the NAGR Presidential Survey in hand. However, we didn't stop the calls, and we won't. Each of the remaining candidates needs to know that gun owners have a powerful voice and we will assume that silence is a sign that they are hiding an anti-gun position.

I have serious concerns about Romney, Santorum, Gingrich and Perry. It's their records that worry me.

Let me take a minute or two right now to remind you about the positions of the four Presidential candidates who have so far refused to return their National Association for Gun Rights Presidential Survey.

Mitt Romney:

So far Mitt Romney has refused to respond to his NAGR gun rights survey, perhaps because when Mitt Romney was Governor of ultra-liberal Massachusetts he signed a bill to ban an entire class of firearms.

Would he do the same thing -- or even worse -- as President of the United States? His record indicates that he would.

Mitt Romney supports the Brady Registration Act, mandatory 5-day waiting periods, mandatory firearms ID cards, the Federal Feinstein Gun Ban (so-called "assault weapons ban") and he signed the Massachusetts Semi-Auto Ban in 2004.

He even went as far as to say that he supported Massachusetts' tough anti-gun laws: "We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them... I won't chip away at them; I believe they protect us and provide for our safety."

And to throw fuel on top of Mitt Romney's anti-gun fire, he received the endorsement of John McCain this week, who himself has recorded promotional commercials for anti-gun groups hell-bent on restricting our Second Amendment rights.

Rick Santorum:

If youve watched any of the Presidential debates, youve noticed that Rick Santorum claims time and again to be a fighter who has led on conservative issues.

Rick Santorums record on the Second Amendment, however, tells a different story.

In the 90s, he voted to support the Lautenberg Gun Ban, which stripped law-abiding gun owners of their Second Amendment rights for life, simply because they spanked their children or did nothing more than grab a spouses wrist.

He voted for a bill in 1999 disguised as an attempt to increase penalties on drug traffickers with guns... but it also included a provision to require federal background checks at gun shows.

In 2000, Santorum voted to force pawn shops to require a background check on anyone coming into the store to sell a firearm.

And then he voted with gun-controlling Democrats Dianne Fienstein and Frank Lautenberg to mandate locks on handguns in 2005.

But worst of all, Rick Santorum has a storied history of bailing out anti-gun Republicans facing reelection.

Rick Santorum came to anti-gun Arlen Specters defense in 2004 when he was down in the polls against pro-gun Republican Pat Toomey. Specter won and continued to push for gun control during his years in the Senate.

He also supported and openly campaigned for anti-gun New Jersey governor, Christine Todd Whitman.

It certainly appears that Rick Santorum has no regrets about his past anti-gun record. Worse, it appears hed be happy to continue along this path as President.

Newt Gingrich:

For those who have followed Newt Gingrichs career, the revelation that he talks out of both sides of his mouth wont be a surprise.

Despite claiming to be pro-gun, Newt Gingrichs reign as Speaker was downright hostile to our Second Amendment rights.

Newt supports the Brady National Gun Registry, a national biometric thumbprint database for gun purchasers, the Lautenberg Gun Ban and the Criminal Safezones Act."

Newt doesn't think the Brady Instant Gun Registry goes far enough -- he wants thumbprints:

"I think we prefer to go to instant check on an immediate basis and try to accelerate implementing instant checks so that you could literally check by thumbprint... Instant check is a much better system than the Brady process." -- June 27, 1997

Gingrich may claim to be pro-gun . . .

But his record indicates otherwise, and his refusal to answer his NAGR survey should give any Second Amendment supporter cause for concern.

Rick Perry:

Texas Governor Rick Perry has received an earful from NAGR members over the past several months for refusing to return his Candidate Survey.

His strategy seems to be to tell gun owners trust me while keeping completely silent on what he would do about our gun rights if elected President.

Over the years, gun owners have learned that this is a failed strategy.

George H.W. Bush ran as a pro-gun candidate for President in 1988, but when elected, things changed.

First, he signed an Executive Order banning the importation of so-called assault weapons.

Not only that, but it was under President Bush that Operation Triggerlock, which dramatically increased funding and power for the BATFE, was implemented.

Of course, as Governor of Texas, Rick Perry did make some minor improvements in state law for gun owners.

It is, however, one thing to act pro-gun as Governor of a state like Texas and quite another to be a pro-gun President of the United States.

Please keep up the pressure on these four Presidential candidates who continue to stonewall gun owners.

Give each campaign a call and demand the candidates return their National Association for Gun Rights Presidential Survey -- at once:

Mitt Romney: 857-288-3500

Rick Santorum: 603-518-5199

Newt Gingrich: 678-973-2306

Rick Perry: 855-887-5627

You and I know that we have the most anti-gun President in the history of our country right now in the Oval Office . . .

. . . but perhaps even more dangerous would be a Republican with a proven anti-gun history cutting backroom, anti-gun deals.



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What a depressing list for anyonw concerned with the second amendment. Ron Paul is the best of the lot on gun rights, and he has other issues that make him unlikely to be elected.



To: from occupied ga

THanks for posting this. I think the assumption among many has simply been that these candidates (with the exception of Mittens) were all somehow pro RKBA. That just is not the case.



by 2 posted onby Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)

To: from occupied ga; gieriscm

Do not trust anything from NAGR. They are a fraud and a scam. They were outed on ar15.com in this thread. http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_5/1269051_Scam_being_run_by_the_National_Association_for_Gun_Rights.html Read the entire thread and pass the word. Any organization that lies so blatantly to raise funds and membership cannot be trusted.



To: from occupied ga

Rick Perry has always been 100% pro-gun. His record on the 2nd amendment is second to none.



by 4 posted onby Beagle8U (Free Republic -- One stop shopping ....... It's the Conservative Super WalMart for news .)

To: BCR #226

What they say about Mittens, Neut, and Santorum appears to be correct. So they may indeed be a scam, but at least about these three they aren’t lying. They are just saying Perry is saying “trust me” without any specifics. This also appears to be true. They didn’t accuse him of lying or being anti-gun.



To: from occupied ga

So who is your candidate? And please don’t give me ‘anyone but Obama’.



by 6 posted onby reaganaut (If Romney is a conservative then I'm the frickin Angel Moroni.)

To: reaganaut

They all suck, but if you want my opinion of who sucks the least, that would probably be Perry, followed by Paul with Mittens and Neut sucking the most.



To: from occupied ga

I’ll believe what that says after I look at the up and down vote for each candidate. Somehow, I don’t think he’s being totally honest in that letter.



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