Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney warned voters on Wednesday that President Barack Obama might eventually curb the rights of gun owners since he is also requiring all health insurers to cover contraception for women.

A man at an event in Fargo, North Dakota asked the candidate how he would “protect our right to the Second Amendment and our right to bear arms.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“I like all the amendments,” Romney replied. “And I like the Second Amendment. And I like the Constitution. It is my blueprint and I will protect the right to bear arms in this country for any lawful purpose — self protection, hunting, what ever purpose people have. I have a couple of guns myself. Shotguns, that is.”

“I know there will be an attack on the Second Amendment, just as there was recently attack on the First Amendment,” the former Massachusetts governor asserted. “Obamacare is interpreted by this administration to say, for instance, to the Catholic Church that they have to provide to the employees — let’s say universities that are in the Catholic Church — they have to provide to them sterilization treatment free, contraceptives and morning-after pills. And that violates the conscience of the church, the conscience of the individuals. And fortunately, there is an effort in Washington to stop that, to reverse that.”

“But this is a president, I agree, who is attacking the principles of the Constitution: the First Amendment, the Second Amendment and there will be more. And by the way, the Tenth Amendment is the one most constantly under attack.”

On Wednesday, Romney calmed the fears of one supporter in Ohio who worried that the candidate was going prevent gun owners from protecting themselves from a “tyrannical government.”

Watch this video from CNN, broadcast March 1, 2012.

ADVERTISEMENT