John McCain’s “Gun Problem”
posted in Candidates, Gun Control, Issues, John McCain (R) |Original source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-sugarmann/john-mccains-gun-proble_b_27717.html
McCain’s “gun problem” stems from two issues: his successful campaign to enact the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform package and his failed Congressional efforts to regulate all sales at gun shows (conducted in a high-profile partnership with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and backed by a group called Americans for Gun Safety, which, by its very name, is enough to earn the instant enmity of many activist gun owners).
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When McCain was trumpeting both of these issues, the National Rifle Association and other pro-gun organizations reacted as jilted, and increasingly, bitter lovers.
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It features a section titled “GOA’s Take on John McCain” and asks the question, “Conservative or Gun Grabber?” Underneath a picture of McCain with the international ban sign over his face, the group states: “Arizona Senator John McCain is almost certainly running for President again. He has been courting various conservative leaders in his quest to secure the Republican nomination. McCain wants voters to believe that he is a conservative… but his record would certainly suggest otherwise. Take, for instance, his record on gun rights and political speech affecting Second Amendment activists. Abysmal, wretched, and pathetic are words that come to mind.” GOA’s legislative rating for McCain in 2006: F.
