September 21, 2007
Second Amendment? Fred's the man*
Jim Geraghty has been blogging from the NRA convention; Fred Thompson was without a doubt the best of the GOP contenders, some of whom have less-than-impressive records (Rudy, Romney) when it somes to the Second Amendment.
[THompson] repeats the line about Americans sacrificing more blood for other countries' freedom than for any other country; I can't help but wonder if it's a jab at the Washington Post for critiquing it and arguing the Soviet Union might rival that claim.
He got a standing ovation at his finish, and then he did a brief Q & A.
"Some believe that the Second Amendment has different meanings in different places, and that the gun rights of citizens in, say, New York City and Chicago can restricted more than the gun rights of those in Tennessee and Montana. Do you agree?"
Thompson responds with a deep, rumbling, slow, "Noooope." Then he follows with absolute catnip for gun owners: "It's never seemed to me to be coincidental that the places that have the highest crime rates tend to be the places that have the most restrictions on gun ownership in America."
Asked about gun shows, he calls the "part of Americana... There's always been an effort on the other side to go after something high profile or particularly vulnerable, an easy target, but I've always resisted that."
Will he appoint an Attorney General who shares his opinion of the Second Amendment. "Yes."
More applause.
"I think we're winning on the interpretation of the Second Amendment. I have a complicated position on this: The Constitution means what it says."
He gets another standing ovation.
Good stuff. Giuliani's anti-gun record is very troubling, his tough-on-crime record notwithstanding. And Romney's blow-dried, slick, shape-shifting persona on a whole host of issues -- guns just one of them -- doesn't inspire confidence.
On this issue, Thompson's the man.
*But Geraghty's subsequent post on Mike Huckabee makes it clear: there are now two nominees who understand and support the Second Amendment.
Posted by Mike Lief at September 21, 2007 11:11 AM
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