Romney adviser: 'Break ranks'

A former adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign called Saturday for a concerted national conversation on gun control, saying the country cannot continue “doing nothing” after the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left dozens dead, including 20 children.

Mark DeMoss, the Christian conservative public relations executive, told POLITICO that placing some limits on guns wouldn’t have to conflict with constitutional liberties, as many on the right contend.


“I’m a conservative and a Republican, and I believe in the Constitution and all of the amendments. But the reality is, there are restrictions on lots of our freedoms,” DeMoss said. “We cherish the freedom of speech, but it doesn’t give you the right to yell ‘fire’ in a crowded theater.”

( Also on POLITICO: Poll: Gun control support hits high)

DeMoss continued: “I have trouble defending a position that says there should be no restrictions on any guns or ammunition, and this slippery slope argument that if you allow the slightest bit of [gun] control, then that’s the start of taking away all our freedoms.

“Somebody’s got to break ranks on one side or the other, it seems to me, and talk in a rational and thoughtful way, which will probably come with great risk to whoever does that,” he said. “I imagine a Republican who speaks on this will probably be opposed in their next election.”

The Atlanta-based DeMoss, who heads the P.R. firm, The Demoss Group, advised Romney’s 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns and sought to build bridges between Romney — the first Mormon major-party presidential nominee — and the evangelical community.

Neither Romney nor President Barack Obama campaigned on new restrictions on gun ownership. Obama said Friday that the country must take “meaningful action” in response to the mass killing at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but did not get more specific than that.

DeMoss acknowledged that a gun-control push could come with a heavy price for its proponents, and noted that gun issues are intertwined with “complicated … issues like mental health.”

But DeMoss, noting that many on the left have been disappointed by Obama’s lack of initiative on gun control, argued: “It’s easy to put out statements saying, ‘our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.’”

“We may not know all the facts on this shooting, but we know the facts on shootings that happened two years ago and five years ago and 13 years ago. And there doesn’t seem to have been serious discussion or deliberation about it. Maybe this will be different,” he said. “Or maybe the next one will be different.”