Gun Restrictions Coming After The Election.

Anytime you start talking about a coming bans on firearms, people come out of the woodwork to tell you how crazy you are and how that could never happen in America.

Well if you watched last night’s presidential debate, it should be painfully obvious that this is no conspiracy theory.

Come election time, gun owners are going to be under attack from new federal legislation that will severely limit what you can and can’t purchase.

Anyone who believes in the right to bear arms, needs to start paying serious attention to what’s going on.

In a very telling sign of what’s to come, both candidates seemed to indicate that the so called “assault weapons ban” could be again rearing its ugly head.

While Romney didn’t say that he would outright introduce the ban nationally, he did admit that he supported a ban on these firearms while Governor of Massachusetts.

On the other hand, President Barack Obama admitted that during a second term his agenda would include, reintroducing a ban on what he calls, “assault weapons”. This legislation would ban firearms like, AR15’s, AK47’s and numerous other rifles and shotguns.

In the debate Obama said:

…”What I’m trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced.”

As we’ve pointed our numerous times in the past, we have two of the most anti-gun presidential candidates in history running for office.

While one candidate, President Obama, has now come out and telegraphed his intentions for the world to hear; the other candidate also has a pretty shady gun record that we must be aware of.

During a February 18, 2007 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Romney was asked to reconcile his support for an assault weapons ban and the Brady background check law with his then-recent decision to join the National Rifle Association.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let’s talk about guns. You were supportive of the Brady Bill, the handgun waiting period in the past. You sign an assault weapon ban into law, and you said in the past, I don’t line up with the NRA. Now you -

ROMNEY: Well, on that, on that issue.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Now you’re a member of the NRA.

ROMNEY: Yes. And I – and I know the NRA does not support an assault weapon ban, so I don’t line up on that particular issue with the NRA, either does President Bush. He likewise says he supported an assault weapon ban. [This Week via Nexis, 2/18/07] 

During a 2002 debate, gubernatorial candidate Romney declared, “We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts; I support them. I won’t chip away at them; I believe they protect us and provide for our safety.” [The Boston Globe, 1/14/07]

And he did exactly that as governor. In a July 1, 2004 press release titled “Romney Signs Off On Permanent Assault Weapons Ban,” Romney explained the rationale behind signing the ban into law, including his belief that assault weapons are “instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people”:

In a move that will help keep the streets and neighborhoods of Massachusetts safe, Governor Mitt Romney today signed into law a permanent assault weapons ban that forever makes it harder for criminals to get their hands on these dangerous guns.

“Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts,” Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony with legislators, sportsmen’s groups and gun safety advocates.  “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.”

Like the federal assault weapons ban, the state ban, put in place in 1998, was scheduled to expire in September.  The new law ensures these deadly weapons, including AK-47s, UZIs and Mac-10 rifles, are permanently prohibited in Massachusetts no matter what happens on the federal level. 

The leading Massachusetts gun advocacy group, Gun Owners Action League (GOAL), was furious with Romney over the new  law. Its own press release titled “Firearm Reform Bill Signed, Romney Takes Opportunity to Betray Gun Owners,” attacked Romney for lining up with Democratic gun violence prevention stalwarts Ted Kennedy and John Kerry on the assault weapons issue. GOAL encouraged its members “to contact Governor Mitt Romney and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey and express their outrage with their betrayal of gun owners in Massachusetts.”

If voters are confused about Romney’s position on guns, the National Rifle Association is partly to blame. In a recent interview with the NRA, the gun rights organization did not press Romney to expand on his previous stances when he said, “I do not support any additional laws to restrict the right to keep and bear arms.”   

Chris Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist, who interviewed Romney, asked leading questions such as, “As governor, you signed a major bill reforming Massachusetts’ gun registration and licensing laws. Some in the media and elsewhere claim this bill was a reauthorization of the semi-auto ban in Massachusetts. What’s your response?”

 In response, Romney claimed that he was “proud to support legislation that expanded the rights of gun owners.”

When election time rolls around, gun owners are going to have a lot to watch out for.