NRA endorses Romney as ‘only hope’ for firearms freedom

The Hill ^ | October 4, 2012 | Jonathan Easley

[2ndDivisionVet]

The National Rifle Association (NRA) endorsed Mitt Romney for president late Thursday.

NRA Executive vice president Wayne LaPierre and NRA Political Victory Fund chairman Chris Cox will formally announce the endorsement at a Romney rally in Virginia later Thursday evening. Vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan will also be on hand.

“In this election, there is no debate,” LaPierre said in a statement. “There is only one choice – only one hope – to save our firearms freedom and our way of life.”

The endorsement is not surprising — the NRA has a history of supporting conservative candidates, who traditionally support strong gun rights.

“Today, we live in an America that is getting harder to recognize every day led by a President who mocks our values, belittles our faith, and is threatened by our freedom,” Cox said in a statement.

Gun rights became a campaign issue earlier in the year after a mass shooting at a movie theater in Colorado.

The late-night shooting at a crowded premier for "The Dark Knight Rises" left 12 dead and dozens wounded has rekindled calls by some on the left to push for stricter gun laws.

The semi-automatic rifle, an AR-15, was illegal under federal law until a ban on it was lifted in 2004.

“I still believe that the Second Amendment is the right course to preserve and defend and don't believe that new laws are going to make a difference in this type of tragedy,” Romney said at the time.

[EternalVigilance]

Lying for Romney is a cottage industry.

Quislings, that’s what they are.

[EternalVigilance]

“Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts,” Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony...“These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.”

[JediJones]

Ah but he said he’s become more conservative as he got older.

[EternalVigilance]

Romney Renews His Support For Gun Control, 23 July [2012]: "That's the kind of legislation I like"

[Scooter100]

“Uh, uh, Jim you may want to move on to another topic...” -—Hussein Obammy (Debate #1)

[Tamzee]

Mr. Hoefling, 3rd party candidate:

You can bold and bigger-font that until it takes up the entire page, if you’d like, it doesn’t change the fact that Romney, as Governor of the most liberal state in our nation, not only never harmed gun rights, repeatedly signed legislation that expanded gun rights. And that comes directly from the gun-lobby in Massachusetts and the NRA.

By your taking snippets of quotes to mischaracterize his standing and history of action on gun rights, you are bearing false witness.

[Tamzee]

To quote a great man, there you go again. In the conservative world, we call this Dowdifying a quote...cutting out a chunk of speech in a quote to give the false impression about what someone actually said. It's LYING. You wrote:

Romney Renews His Support For Gun Control, 23 July [2012]: "That's the kind of legislation I like"

What he actually said was this

"the law that we signed in Massachusetts was a combination of efforts both on the part of those that were for additional gun rights and those that opposed gun rights,...Where there are opportunities for people of reasonable minds to come together and find common ground, that’s the kind of legislation I like.

.

Your post was basic, blatant lying, and you pose yourself as representing the Christian right?

.

[unixfox]

We don't need gov't permission to enforce our rights: just our index finger.

Bumper sticker.

[Tamzee]

Lying for Romney is a cottage industry.

Quislings, that’s what they are.

Again with name-calling and calling others liars while you are blatantly bearing false witness against opponents. Seriously, I'm worried about you. I believe you have truly lost your way and constantly miss the forest for the trees. I think you have honest intentions in your campaign, but you are so consumed in your pursuit of office in the name of "morality" that you are Machiavellian in your tactics. When truth and honor in debate do not supersede your political pursuit, why should anyone have confidence that you would suddenly remember truth and honor AFTER you were sworn in?

Based on the principles you say you espouse on your site, I think you would have been excellent in office... starting locally, working your way up. But I just don't see those principles revealed in your speech to others here :-(

[Darren McCarty]

The NRA is sometimes pragmatic to a fault. I can understand a C rating for Mitt over an F for Obama, but he should not get the endorsement. I wouldn't have done it. I'd release a statement to the effect of "he's not getting a full endorsement, but better than the other guy."

Joe Schwarz was endorsed, so there is precedence for bad endorsements. I'm voting for Mitt as the lesser of two evils, but I'm not going to delude myself into thinking he's the next George Washington.

[Darren McCarty]

At worst, a Romney presidency will do the following: 1. Fire Eric Holder, Janet Napoliatano, Tim Geithner, Cass Sunstein (if he's still there), Kathleen Sebelius, and the rest of the cabinet.
2. Not appoint Kagan and Sotomayor.

I'm not expecting a cabinet full of Mike Pence clones, but getting Holder out alone is a start.

[2ndDivisionVet]

General of the Armies George Washington would be treated like Senator Barry Goldwater or Governor George Wallace if he ran today.

[EternalVigilance]

Romney permanently banned guns. All of the obfuscation in the world, all of the sophisticated spin of his lawyers, hacks, and sycophants, can't hide that fact.

“Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts,” Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony...“These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.”

The same class of weapons, by the way, that you can see depicted in the hands of the Minutemen in the following image:

“The power of the sword is in the hands of Congress? My friends and countrymen, it is not so; for the powers of the sword are in the hands of the yeomanry of America from sixteen to sixty. The Militia of these free commonwealths, entitled and accustomed to their arms, when compared with any possible army, must be tremendous and irresistible. Who are the Militia? They are not ourselves as politicians and lawmakers. They are those who have elected us into our positions and entrusted us with the power of preserving and carrying out their wishes. Congress has no power to disarm the Militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American. The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the Federal or State governments, but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people.”

-– Tench Coxe, letter to James Madison during adoption of the Bill of Rights in the United States Congress (1789)

[Tamzee]

They were already banned. The Massachusetts Gun Owners Action League was lobbying FOR this legislation that he signed because it actually expanded gun rights, not the opposite that you keep pretending.

Lie all you want, bold all you want, post all the pretty pictures you want - it doesn’t change the facts or his history.... again, as proven by GOAL and the NRA.

[EternalVigilance]

They were already banned.

Federally. A ban that was expiring.

Until Romney banned them permanently in Massachusetts.

Tell the truth.

[EternalVigilance]

The Massachusetts ban which was enacted in '98 was expiring in Sept. of 2004 as well.

Until Romney made it permanent.

[EternalVigilance]

One last point and then I’m going to bed.

Romney also ran for the U.S. Senate as a supporter of the federal ban as well.

[Red in Blue PA]

What are you smoking? Barry will issue an EO on day 1. Hell with Congress.

There is not even a question on this one. Romney is the only one to save this nation and individual liberties.

[Woodsman27]

Neither candidates understands the issue and both have been on the record as being anti-gun. There is no question that Romney is not as bad on the issue but he is no champion of our gun rights.

[publiusF27]

This should be a headline on The Onion, not The Hill.