God, guns and country: NRA endorses Mitt Romney

Mitt Romney now has the full backing of the powerful gun lobby, The National Rifle Association, the biggest pro-gun group in the United States. The NRA formally announced its endorsement of Romney and the Republican campaign for presidency on Thursday.

Still walking tall and bouncing along after his well-received performance during the first presidential debate, Mittens gushed:

"I am proud to have their support for my candidacy, and when I am president, I will do all in my power to defend and protect the right of all law-abiding Americans to keep and bear arms."

This is in stark contrast to his pronouncement on guns and their use for recreational and hunting purposes back in 2004 when he signed off a bill in Massachusetts for the permanent ban of assault weapons in the state. Speaking on July 1, 2004, Romney said:

"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.”

On Wednesday, Americans saw that when it comes to finance, jobs and economic policy in general, Romney has the potential to nail Obama based on the president’s inability so far to deliver on these issues. Mittens perhaps needs to be careful, when straying back into other areas of policy where he has appeared decidedly shaky.

Gun control, along with some other moral and lifestyle-orientated subjects, throw up too many opportunities for Romney to shoot himself in the foot -- once he’s taken it out of his mouth, of course.

Romney’s current position on guns as given in his platform statement is that he does not "believe that the United States needs additional laws that restrict the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms." With this position it’s no wonder that the NRA has come out with their endorsement of his election campaign.

Yes, the good old gun buddies are nothing if effusive in their endorsement of Romney. Chris Cox, the NRA’s Victory Fund chair, called Romney "a friend of our Second Amendment freedoms and hunting heritage.” Cox went on declaiming in an almost call-to-arms statement:

"Today we live in an America led by a president who mocks our values, belittles our faith, and is threatened by our freedom. So on behalf of the four million men and women of the National Rifle Association, representing tens of millions of NRA supporters, it is my honor to announce the NRA's endorsement of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan."

Cox, like many of those in the NRA, talk about guns and their right to carry them with an almost religious fervour bringing to mind Obama’s statement of April 2008 when speaking of right-wing republicans that some of them “cling to guns or religion."

For some Republicans it might even be that they don’t see any difference between guns and religion, sure in the knowledge that all good Christians carry a loaded gun.

with a sword strapped on
he sleeps on the lawn...
first day of the Rat

Issa 1817

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