Presidential Tickets Are Worlds Apart

The parties' political conventions usually serve only as an alarm clock that rings for four days straight. Every four years, the clock is set to go off around Labor Day, reminding Americans to start paying attention to electoral contests that are generally well-defined by that point--all set to play out their final months according to script.

But this year, the conventions and their related events--the nominations for Vice President, the ratification of party platforms and the issues highlighted during the convention media frenzy--rang like a fire bell for gun owners. Over the course of two short weeks, the respective candidates delivered pure contrast and clarity on the Second Amendment.

Barack Obama's selection of Joe Biden as his vice-presidential nominee brought a familiar figure back into focus for gun owners. Biden, a longtime leader of anti-gun senators, spent the years between 1987 and 1995 perched in the chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Biden personally shepherded the concept of a national waiting period for handguns and a federal ban on semi-automatic firearms through countless hearings, drafts and re-drafts, until both became law. Arguably, no other senator has as much experience as Joe Biden in passing major anti-gun legislation into law.

While Biden was accepting his nomination, Obama's Democratic Party platform committee was carefully hashing out its gun control language. It included this talking point from Obama's repertoire: "We believe that the right to own firearms is subject to reasonable regulation, but we know that what works in Chicago may not work in Cheyenne." First of all, gun control doesn't "work" anywhere, and the studies have been done to prove it. Worse yet, Obama's Democratic Party leadership apparently believes that your constitutional rights depend on where you choose to live. That's a new concept; call it "geo-constitutionalism," perhaps.

The final signal to gun owners came from Obama himself, in his acceptance speech from an over-the-top Greco-Roman stage setting. Obama again embraced geo-constitutionalism, saying, "The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals."

This is Obama-speak at its finest. When you read the words, they actually say nothing. But when you hear them spoken, the message is clear--Obama says he will reinstate the Clinton gun ban, and he believes it's constitutional. And trust me, he means it.

After months of trying to throw a tarp over the Second Amendment, why is Obama now showing his true colors? Hard to say. But these were definitely shots across our bow, and the echoes were still ringing when John McCain took the stage to announce Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential pick.

A farther cry from Joe Biden would be hard to imagine. Gov. Palin is a Life member of the NRA, an avid hunter and proud shooter. She is not a Beltway insider--in fact, she's not even an Alaska insider. The Beltway's typical heated debate over gun control would no doubt be foreign to her. What would not sound foreign to her are well-informed discussions about wildlife management and habitat conservation--issues she has championed as governor.

While the media was reeling in shock over McCain's selection of a woman with such sterling credentials, the Republican Party platform committee was setting out its plank on the Second Amendment. It begins by saying, "We uphold the right of individual Americans to own firearms, a right which antedated the Constitution and was solemnly confirmed by the Second Amendment. Gun ownership is responsible citizenship, enabling Americans to defend themselves, their property, and communities."

The platform language goes on to list several anti-gun proposals that the party opposes and then affirms its support for the recent Supreme Court decision in the Heller case.

It closes with another familiar sentiment, "We are astounded that four justices of the Supreme Court believe that individual Americans have no individual right to bear arms to protect themselves and their families," and it calls for the appointment of federal judges who will support our constitutional rights.

The Second Amendment is not a partisan issue--in each party we have friends who deserve our support and foes who deserve defeat. But with their presidential nominees, vice-presidential nominees, party platforms and convention rhetoric, the two parties have sent two unmistakable signals to gun owners. First, we must defend freedom to beat Obama. Second, to accomplish this goal, gun owners must turn out in droves on Election Day--to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket and the candidates endorsed by the NRA Political Victory Fund.

For more information on NRA-PVF endorsements, log on to www.nrapvf.org.