April 16, 2007
On Blacksburg And 2008
The Virginia Tech shootings are, for the moment, topic A in the presidential race. The major presidential candidates have issued statements, and one of them, ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney, has canceled a fundraiser in Virginia scheduled for tomorrow. (Late word from Congress: the Senate Judiciary Committee's grilling of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has also been postponed).
Inevitably, as inexplicable as this shooting might turn out to be, politicians will discover long-standing problems and then propose solutions. Remember that ex-President Clinton wanted Congress to close the so-called "gun show loophole" that allowed the two Columbine killers to purchase their weapons -- that hasn't happened.
Though the national gun control debate has effectively been tabled since 2000, it may return to the agenda, again. Already, Romney and ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani have been pressed on their 2nd amendment credentials and the degree to which federalism will govern their federal policy proposals. Mr. Romney has altered his position on gun laws, and Mr. Giuliani seems to have softened his support for federal regulation. Will Democrats bite? Americans favor some type of gun control in principle But many Democrats believe that the issue cuts against them with swing voters, and the evidence is equivocal.
Both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama stuck mostly to expressions of grief, which seems about right. Obama did allow, at the end of his remarks this afternoon, that he thinks "we have to do some soul searching to find out are there ways we can prevent these things from happening again."
One candidate can scratch the "do something" itch immediately. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico ordered a stem-to-stern review of his state's higher education security policies. [MARC AMBINDER]
Posted at 06:48 PM
Comments
cry cry cry
jacob | 04.16.07 07:10 PM
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cry
jacob | 04.16.07 07:10 PM
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"Mr. Romney has altered his position on gun laws"
Evidence please . . . you're not going to find it.
Romney has always supported the Assault Weapons Ban (then and now). Everyone keeps saying that Romney's changed all his positions, but just because something is repeated enought doesn't make it true. He's had a major shift on his political stance on abortion, sure, but beyond that you're hard pressed to see any real position shifts.
Check out his campaign flyers from '94 . . . Front
and
Looks like he ran a pretty conservative campaign back then to me!
Jeff Fuller | 04.16.07 08:57 PM
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Good post! And all I can say is that hopefully this time the debate won't be tabled. It's time to end gun violence and ending the accessibility of such destructive weapons is where it should start.
08BAMA!
Chris Scanzoni | 04.16.07 10:03 PM
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