Democrats speak softly on gun control

Gun control used to be an easy, reliable issue for Democrats. Presidential candidates could bring it up and audiences would cheer.

No more. As the party's nine White House hopefuls hop from city to city in candidate forums, no one seems to want to talk guns.

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They seem frightened of the issue. They know that most Democratic urban and suburban voters want strict curbs on guns, but Democrats in rural and Western states often abhor the idea of limits. And there is a strong sense that the tough stand on gun control cost the party key elections in 2000 and 2002.

So no one brings up guns, few even mention it on their Internet sites and when someone else asks about the topic, candidates say, "Sure, we're for gun control, but we're also for letting people keep their guns."

Such talk, say gun rights advocates, is just smoke and mirrors.

"Our members are very savvy. They know the rhetoric doesn't match the record" of Democrats on the gun issue, Chris W. Cox, the National Rifle Association's chief lobbyist, told the Hartford Courant.

OFCC PAC Commentary:
There is plenty of anti-gun, anti-self-defense sentiment lurking in the shadows of the Democrat Party. In a recent Washington Times article discussing the notion that gun-control has become a loosing argument for Democrat politicians, anti-self-defense extremists had this to say about the Democrat's unwillingness to focus on passing more gun control laws:

"Whoever is advising them on gun control should be shot." -- Blaine Rummel, spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.

Bob Taft sure hasn't gotten the message that these national Democrats have gotten. At least the nine Dem. candidates are trying to hide their true beliefs. Not Taft. He wears his anti-self-defense, anti-gun beliefs on his sleeve.

Bob Taft has demanded things be added to HB12 that no state Democrats were even asking for - namely the "Car-jacker Protection" provision.

We have to ask why the Senate's Republican leadership is bowing to pressure from a politician with the lowest approval ratings for an Ohio governor in nearly 20 years, on an issue proven to being key to election victories.

Click here to read the entire story in the Hartford Courant.