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GOP, Romney Promote Strong Second Amendment Platform

Romney is more supportive of Second Amendment rights than previously thought.

by
Howard Nemerov

Bio

September 19, 2012 - 12:00 am
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This information doesn’t excuse President Obama’s average deficit of over $1.3 trillion annually for the last four years. It’s also possible that the writers of the 2012 GOP platform already learned recent history’s lesson.

Nor does anything downplay the Democrats’ Second Amendment platform, which parrots the anti-rights “reasonable regulation” agenda:

  • Strengthening our background check system.
  • Reinstating the assault weapons ban (Clinton gun ban).
  • Closing the “gun show loophole” (ban private sales between individuals).

Mitt Romney appears to be supportive of the Second Amendment, despite having been governor of one of America’s most anti-rights states. Massachusetts’ Gun Owners’ Action League reported:

GOAL had more access to this administration than any other since the days of Governor Ed King in 1979.

Under Romney, positive change happened. For example, a new regulation allowed a “free replacement of firearm licenses to those who had them stolen or lost.” Previously, this would have required repeating the entire application process and paying $100.

GOAL notes that Massachusetts passed its own “assault weapons” ban in 1998, before Romney’s tenure. James Wallace, GOAL’s executive director, explained what happened when Massachusetts updated this law in 2004:

The Massachusetts AW ban already existed and we didn’t have the votes to get rid of it. With that in mind, we wanted to permanently attach the federal definitions to MA law to retain the existing listing of hundreds of guns that could not be considered AWs. Also, we wanted to have a clear definition of what an AW is.

This protected against what Wallace called the legislature’s desire “to play the vagueness of any law in their favor.”

GOAL worked with the Romney administration and the heavily Democratic legislature to remove gun control language buried in a 2006 anti-gang bill. Said Wallace:

The original language of this bill was very loose, so bad that had you put your shotgun in a rack at the trap range and stepped away, you could have been convicted for illegal distribution of a firearm.

Overall, GOAL concluded:

  • “During the Romney Administration no anti-Second Amendment or anti-sportsmen legislation made its way to the Governor’s desk.”
  • “Governor Romney did sign five pro-Second Amendment/pro-sportsmen bills into law.”

Education and participation remain the best way to protect your rights. To avoid diminishment of rights or a negative repeat of history, voters must take a more active role in supervising their representatives. Your involvement can make the upcoming election a significant first step in restoring America.

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Former civilian disarmament supporter and medical researcher Howard Nemerov investigates the civil liberty of self-defense and examines the issue of gun control, resulting in his book Four Hundred Years of Gun Control: Why Isn’t It Working? He appears frequently on radio as an analyst and was published in the Texas Review of Law and Politics with professors David Kopel and Carlisle Moody.
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