New Hampshire Paper Says McCain’s Record on Guns a Real ‘Turkey’ — Please ask the Senator to stop backtracking on gun rights

Gun Owners of America E-Mail/FAX Alert
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, VA 22151
Phone: 703-321-8585 / FAX: 703-321-8408

http://www.gunowners.org

(Multi-State Alert: Wednesday, November 24, 1999) — The New Hampshire Union Leader ran an editorial on Monday exposing Senator John McCain’s voting record on guns this year.

In the editorial entitled “Shame on McCain: Embarrassed by GOP and the 2nd Amendment,” Bernadette Malone Connolly shows how McCain has
taken a decided turn to the left– all in the hopes of gaining favorable media attention during his run for President. Here’s what Connolly had to say about his flip-flop on gun rights yesterday:

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Unprovoked, from out of left field, John McCain took a shot at gun collectors, owners and dealers on CNN’s “Larry King Live” program last Monday night. Larry King didn’t even bring up guns with McCain, but when he asked McCain why congressional Republicans are held in “low esteem in national polls,” the GOP Presidential candidate couldn’t resist:

“We need to pass the legislation on gun control,” he responded after briefly mentioning the special interests’ influence on HMO reform. “It (gun control) was passed through the Senate. We need to do things that the American people want us to do rather than being gridlocked by the special interests and we’re gridlocked on both
sides.”

These special interests McCain is complaining about are the citizens– many in New Hampshire– who are trying to defend their right to buy a firearm from a gun show or private collector without the imposition of the federal government taking three business days to conduct a background check. This regulation is the one passed by the Senate, even though 95 percent of all background checks take no more than three hours, and gun shows usually last only one weekend.

McCain helped to kill this anti-gun owner bill last May, but after the national media expressed outage at the outcome the next morning, he panicked and demanded that the Senate do something to placate the likes of the New York Times and CNN. McCain then allowed the gun control bill to become the Senate’s official position, despite the effort led by New Hampshire Sen. Bob Smith to
kill it.

The gun issue reveals how McCain himself is too easily influenced by special interests– in this case, the media elite. Wasn’t he standing on principle when he voted against the gun show
regulations? How, then, could he be so supple as to let it become the Senate position that is now under consideration by Congress as a whole.

A tragic school shooting in Conyers, Ga., took place immediately after McCain voted against the gun show ban, but that would have been an opportunity for McCain to demonstrate the courage he possesses by standing up to media pressure rather than capitulating ne, Columbine, Colo., school shooting took place, but McCain held his ground against anti-gun legislation then. It was the media explosion that brought him to his knees.

This weakness was brought to light again Monday night, when McCain told Larry King exactly what the media elite like to hear: The Republican Congress is a flop because they haven’t stopped
citizens from privately buying and selling guns yet.
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ACTION: Please encourage Sen. McCain to not cave in to the media pressures, but rather, to stand tall with the millions of Americans who support the Bill of Rights without compromise. You can reach the Senator as follows:

Presidential Campaign: (toll-free) 877-905-7700
Capitol Hill: (toll-free) 877-722-7494 & ask for Sen. McCain’s office
McCain’s Capitol Office: (ph) 202-224-223 (fx) 202-228-7132
Campaign e-mail: [email protected]
Capitol Office e-mail: [email protected]
McCain’s Gun Votes Record: http://www.gunowners.org/106svote.htm