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FROMAN: Election is key for gun owners

By Sandy Froman

Published November 2, 2008 at 12:01 a.m.

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The National Rifle Association recently endorsed John McCain over Barack Obama for president. Despite differences that the NRA has had with Sen. McCain in the past, the stakes for gun owners in 2008 are higher than ever, giving gun owners a historic choice to make on November 4.

While the economy is dominating the news right now, it’s critical that voters never lose sight of matters of long-term importance. Elections are about the future, and the future of many issues will be decided by who we elect as our next president.

That’s especially true for gun owners. Although the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is always impacted by whoever occupies the White House, this time our next president may literally determine the future of gun ownership in this country.

Gun rights are on entirely new footing in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. In the Heller case, the Court found that the Second Amendment protects a individual right to keep and bear arms for private citizens, striking down the D.C. city law that banned all handguns and other readily-usable firearms.

But the Heller decision was a 5-4 decision. Four justices voted that the Second Amendment includes no right whatsoever for private citizens, and therefore that the government can totally ban firearms at will. This would effectively erase the Second Amendment.

So the next few years will be critical for gun rights, as the Court decides to expand the Heller decision by fleshing out what the Second Amendment means.

The next president will likely appoint at least three Supreme Court justices. And two of the five justices who voted to uphold the Second Amendment in Heller are age 70 or older. So the Heller majority is a fragile one, and the next president may well create a Court that could overturn Heller.

The NRA has had issues with John McCain over the years, and did not immediately weigh in on this race. But the differences between the candidates on the Second Amendment could not be more extreme.

John McCain has consistently supported a right to bear arms, whether involving outdoorsmen seeking to hunt or people in their homes keeping firearms for self-defense. He supported tort reform to shield gun makers from being held liable for acts committed by criminals, and has regularly opposed the various gun-control schemes that have been promoted over the years.

Barack Obama has a consistent record in the opposite direction. Ever since 1996 he has supported a total ban on handguns, a position he reaffirmed earlier this year before the Supreme Court’s decision. He opposed efforts to pass the law that said gun makers are not liable for what criminals may do with a gun years later, and has supported bans on various types of firearms and ammunition proposed by the anti-gun left over the past decade.

Despite these differences, both candidates claim to be pro-gun. But after the Heller decision, Supreme Court nominations trump everything. Whether a presidential candidate supports the Second Amendment will from now on be determined by one simple question: What sort of judge will you nominate for the Supreme Court? In a sense, guns are the new abortion. When it comes to abortion no one focuses on what abortion laws a president would support or oppose; what really matters is whether the justices they appoint would affirm or overturn Roe v. Wade. This needs to be the standard that gun owners use in a post-Heller world.

John McCain and Barack Obama have made perfectly clear what sort of people they would put on the Court. John McCain said he would appoint justices like Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, two justices who voted to uphold the Second Amendment. Barack Obama opposed both nominations, and said that his model justice would be Ruth Bader Ginsburg, one of the four dissenters who said that the Second Amendment gives no rights to private citizens.

So the NRA has now weighed in on the White House race. In coming years, the Supreme Court will answer major questions over the right to bear arms; what guns you can own, how many guns you can own, what ammunition you can buy, whether and where you can hunt, whether you can pass on the American tradition of firearms ownership and hunting to your children. The stakes are too high for American gun owners to remain silent. They need to choose a candidate who truly supports Second Amendment rights.

Sandy Froman is the former president of the National Rifle Association of America, and on the steering committee for Sportsmen for McCain.

Comments

  • November 2, 2008

    1:34 a.m.

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    conservative111 writes:

    As our past President of the NRA and our hero Charlton Heston once said: "From my cold, dead hands!"

  • November 2, 2008

    3:30 a.m.

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    roger44 writes:

    Obama gets elected, the gun owners will buy more. Picture this, the Government trying to round up all the weapons owned by private citizens in this country. This country would fall, and our enemies could just walk right in. Not like they couldn't walk in already across our southern border, but during WW2, no one planned to invade with armies, because of the number of armed citizens. Watch the old movie Red Dawn, eye opener. it would divide this country like nothing has ever before if the next President made any move to take our weapons.

  • November 2, 2008

    6:12 a.m.

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    EXrepublican writes:

    more fear for the faint hearted. Brady was and still is a republican.
    remember that Brady bill? the basis of republican fear.
    The fear of the NRA and republicans towards any Democrat is misplaced.
    One can be a life time MRA member, yet if one is also a Democrat the NRA will refuse to endorse...

    I have noticed firearms owned by Democrats are well taken care of. whilst among republicans they tend to be overused and unreliable.

  • November 2, 2008

    8:28 a.m.

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    Elwood writes:

    I have been a member of the NRA for 30 years and they have endorsed democrats multiple times (old age prevents me from listing specifics).

  • November 2, 2008

    10:15 a.m.

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    fencergal writes:

    Always remember this: The Second Amendment protects the FIrst.

  • November 2, 2008

    10:33 a.m.

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    BoiseBroncoFan writes:

    It's pretty plain to see, all of you demo-nut, obama-bots are afraid of us redneck, gun toting, bible loving republicans. I dare you, just try to take our guns and bibles away...please, just try!

  • November 2, 2008

    2:42 p.m.

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    AngelontheSidelines writes:

    Sandy, you grow shrill with this alarmist framing of your arguement,
    "Four justices voted that the Second Amendment includes no right whatsoever for private citizens, and therefore that the government can totally ban firearms at will. This would effectively erase the Second Amendment."

    Wow, why take a page from the victimhood script that righties love to ridicule? The NRA is no longer the education and advocacy group of my youth, but a hollow relic, much like the GOP.

    Choose your battles wisely Sandy. Shrill cries this late in the game isn't nearly as effective as planning future battles in congress.

    Assault weapons popguns, and high capacity magazines are within our right to bear arms, but they are no match for real live (The 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team) army deploying on the home(father)land.
    http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/09...
    Private security(mercenaries) and 'volunteer' youth are not words for science fiction novels anymore. Our freedom depends on us, and how we use our minds, not litmus tests over the second amendment.

  • November 2, 2008

    3:21 p.m.

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    Maxx writes:

    Oh please, Obama is not going to take your guns away. Can you imagine what a mess that would be just to round them up! How many would die doing it. It will never happen! Quit pushing fear as a way to win the election. I swear, republicans are a herd of cows willing to believe anything.