Alphecca

For Once, He's Right

Josh Sugarmann is part of the Huffington Post stable of leftist political commentators. He has written virulently against gun ownership, the right to personal defense, and like most lefties, he only supports those parts of the Bill of Rights he agrees with and you'll be shocked to hear that the 2nd Amendment isn't one of those parts. None-the-less, even a stopped clock is right twice a day and he pretty well sums up John McCain's "Gun Problem" for voters like me:

McCain's "gun problem" stems from two issues: his successful campaign to enact the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform package and his failed Congressional efforts to regulate all sales at gun shows (conducted in a high-profile partnership with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and backed by a group called Americans for Gun Safety, which, by its very name, is enough to earn the instant enmity of many activist gun owners). The gun lobby and its rank and file view the campaign finance law as an outrageous infringement on their free speech rights while the effort to regulate gun show sales is viewed as a direct attack on the Second Amendment and liberty itself.

Needless to say, those on the left still refuse to admit that the Second Amendment refers to a personal right (as -- surprise -- all the other Amendments do). It's interesting to note, though, that even a few lefties, notably Alan Dershowitz and Laurence Tribe, have come around to the "personal right" belief. Courts have not been favorable to that view either although the 5th Circuit recently did. The SCOTUS has not ruled on it at all.

John McCain's views on the 2nd Amendment are poison to me. I will not vote for him. Same goes for Rudy Giuliani. Same goes for Hillary Clinton. I hold no allegiance to any political party. I will vote for whomever has worked the hardest -- proven by their history of voting -- to preserve the 2nd Amendment, as well as all the others.

I wish more liberals -- or progressives as they call themselves now -- and Democrats specifically would fight for the Second Amendment as strongly as they do the other ones. They'd collect another four million votes in the process and win more elections more easily. And I wouldn't have to "settle" for Republican candidates.