Posted on 02/06/2007 12:08:48 PM PST by 300magnum
NEWTOWN, Conn.—In response to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's filing of a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission yesterday, indicating that he would enter the 2008 presidential race as a Republican, the firearms industry's trade association, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), reminded America's sportsmen and gun-enthusiasts of the former mayor's record of hostility toward firearms and gun-owners.
"Recent remarks indicate the mayor is attempting to camouflage his record on guns – a political maneuver now common for politicians seeking national office," said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel.
In June of 2000, then New York City Mayor Giuliani became the lone Republican mayor to sue members of the firearms industry as part of a wave of lawsuits that began in the late 1990's by major metropolitan cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Philadelphia and San Francisco that sought to hold firearms manufactures responsible for the criminal misuse of firearms. The Giuliani lawsuit is still pending and being aggressively pursued by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Giuliani strongly opposed legislation blocking suits like the one he filed against members of the firearms industry. In 2005, President Bush signed legislation into law that barred such lawsuits after Congress, by a broad bipartisan margin, passed the bill. During the debate in Congress the Giuliani lawsuit was specifically referred to as an example of the kind of "junk" lawsuit the law is intended to stop.
"Giuliani's lawsuit may have gained him praise in Gotham, but will surely handicap him in the rest of the country, particularly during the southern primaries," predicted Keane.
More recently Giuliani's campaign has flipped-flopped on whether he continues his longstanding support for restoring the Clinton-era federal ban on some semi-automatic rifles based on cosmetic appearance. The so-called "assault weapons" ban sunset in 2004. Several studies including those by the Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control showed the ban had no impact on crime largely because the banned firearms were very rarely if ever used in crime. The ban had nothing to do with machine guns, which have remained heavily regulated since the early part of the last century.
According to the New York Post, Giuliani's political operative in New Hampshire, Wayne Semprini, "has been telling voters that the mayor will be an 'easy sell' - and that the ex-mayor 'satisfied' him that he won't support federal assault-weapons bans, as he has in the past." All the while Anthony Carbonetti, Giuliani's top advisor, has been telling New Yorkers "the mayor's position on this [the assault weapons ban] has not changed."
Commenting on this equivocation, Keane added, "You can't pretend to be a supporter of sportsmen and gun-owners in New Hampshire when you tried to sue the firearms industry out of existence in New York. Other politicians learned the hard way that sportsmen and gun-owners are a well-informed and highly motivated voting bloc. Former President Clinton in his memoirs admitted the gun issue cost Al Gore the White House, and Senator Kerry's ill-fated goose hunt cooked his presidential aspirations in 2004."
Formed in 1961, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is the trade association for the firearms industry. For more information, visit www.nssf.org.
A politician who wants to take your guns is figuring on taking everything you've got.
Gun control laws increase the power of government and the criminal element over the average citizen and serve no other purpose.
- Robert E. Lee
A goverment that fears arms in the hands of it people should also fear ROPE!
- Nathan Bedford Forrest about 1845
I am opposed to all attempts to license or restrict the arming of individuals.
..I consider such laws a violation of civil liberty, subversive of democratic political institutions, and self-defeating in their purpose.
- Robert Heinlein, in a 1949 letter concerning "Red Planet"
I don't know about you, but if you hear that Williams' guns have been taken, you will know that Williams is dead. - Walter Williams, syndicated columnist
Ain't much can't be cured with a lot of lead flyin' through the air.
- SEAL Team Six saying
It is hard to oppress a population equipped to hunt animals the size of a man.
-- L. Neil Smith, Pallas (New York: Tor, 1993), p. 380
Americans have the will to resist because you have weapons.
If you don't have a gun, freedom of speech has no power.
- Yoshimi Ishikawa, Japanese author commenting on the lack of protest with which Japanese tolerated governmental corruption, Los Angeles Times, 10/15/92
The most important freedom of all is the freedom to defend freedom.
- Kevin McGehee
Gun control, the opiate of the intellectuals:
covert elitism laced with self-righteousness.
There is plenty of the American "public" asking for more gun control now. And plenty of movers and shakers in the Democrat-controlled Congress ready to give it to them if we have a president willing to support further restrictions and bans.
Two years for this to be repeated.
In 2005, President Bush signed legislation into law that barred such lawsuits after Congress, by a broad bipartisan margin, passed the bill. During the debate in Congress the Giuliani lawsuit was specifically referred to as an example of the kind of "junk" lawsuit the law is intended to stop.
Please add me to your list, high volume though it will be.
To flashbunny: a little ammo here.
I hope you don't mind me stealing that and using as my tag line!
Please add me to this ping list. Thanks.
What Rudy should have done when NYC gun murder rates dropped is loosen up the concealed carry and ownership permits, that would have shown him to be flexable and trustworthy on the issue. One has to be honest about it, the crackdown on guns did drop the murder rate, one can buy the logic in that, that the situation required it. But then when the situation no longer requires it back off.
Not ever backing off to less restrictions, less taxes, less control is what has killed the credibility of politicians. Backing off in not in the nature of the beast, and I don't think it ever will be.
I've read Gilchrist is the most likely. I wonder what his take on gun rights is.
************
You're right, of course. Er, except for the very last part.
Unfortunately for the Rudy haters, they don't have a realistic candidate they can rally around. They will split their vote among Duncan Hunter, Gingrich, Brownback, Tancredo, etc and Rudy will waltz to victory. Why? Because a plurality of Republicans LIKE Rudy Giuliani and want to vote for him. Simple as that.
Sign me up. Thanks!
Except that he also put the screws on long-term permit holders - and history shows that has NOTHING to do with reducing crime - to the contrary, increasing concealed-carry does.
"Never forget, even for an instant, that the one and only reason anybody has for taking your gun away is to make you weaker than he is, so he can do something to you that you wouldn’t let him do if you were equipped to prevent it. This goes for burglars, muggers, and rapists, and even more so for policemen, bureaucrats, and politicians." — Aaron Zelman and L. Neil Smith, Hope (2001)
A pro abortion, anti-gun, pro gay rights, pro illegal immigration, anti-freedom fascist. What's not to like?
If Rion Rudy wins look for the rise of the third party candidate.
"Just waiting for the Julie Anne fag flag wavers to start their hysterical screaming"
This is an example of Free Republic hate speech and it's the kind of crap that will bring this site down.
"This is a crock. Rudy governed New York City as a New Yorker. The public ASKED for more gun control. "
So if the public asks to suspend any other amendments, it's A-ok if rudy follows through?
So the constitution and bill of rights isn't the supreme law of the land everywhere in the US if a small pocket of the country doesn't like it?
Quite the principled stand you have there.
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