PRO-GUN GROUPS APPLAUD BUSH VICTORY
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
They were celebrating at the White House and wherever Republicans gathered on Nov. 3 after Sen. John Kerry conceded defeat and President George W. Bush delivered a televised victory speech; the race had been extremely close with the prospect of prolonging litigation and recounts in Ohio.
Kerry’s concession speech at 2 p.m. EST in Boston closed the door on a prolonged and bitter battle as occurred following the 2000 Bush-Gore race.
But nowhere was anyone as happy with the outcome of the close Nov. 2 presidential race as in the headquarters of the nation’s major national gun rights organizations. And perhaps nowhere more unhappy than in the anti-gun camp, which had been very active in support of Kerry. Two days after the election was confirmed, the Brady Bunch and their allies were silent.
Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) which endorsed Bush and called Kerry “the most anti-gun presidential candidate in history,” was ecstatic over the results. Late in the campaign, polling showed that over 40% of NRA members had been taken in by Kerry’s repeated photo-ops on hunting forays or with presentation shotguns. Problematic early exit polling reports caused worries and confusion for the NRA as well as for the Bush Campaign and the general media. Many polls before the election were indicating a Kerry victory. And most political observers were also uncertain about the results of an influx of new voters, especially young people.
In the end, despite a record turnout of over 115 million voters, particularly in Florida which went for Bush bigger than in 2000, the 51%-48% vote went for Bush, giving him an expected Electoral College majority of 274-252. In late counting he also captured New Mexico and looked like the winner in Iowa where results would not be certified until Nov. 10.
The NRA’s Political Victory Fund invested heavily in support of Bush and in opposition to Kerry during the campaign as well as in other key races.
“The problem Kerry had with gunowners is that everything he put out there said he was a passionate defender of the Second Amendment, but he had a 20-year record proving that to be a lie,” LaPierre said.
LaPierre thanked gunowners and hunters for their votes and their hard working during the campaign that was viewed as pivotal to the future of the right to keep and bear arms.
LaPierre was not alone.
“With pro-gun leadership in the House and Senate, as well as the White House, we’re very optimistic about our prospects for protecting 2nd Amendment freedoms and hunting traditions, and advancing legislation to protect firearms makers and sellers from frivolous lawsuits that threaten their businesses,” said Doug Painter, president of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) congratulated gunowners who turned out in record numbers across the country for “providing the critical votes necessary to strengthen the pro-gun majority on Capitol Hill, and keep a pro-gun President in the White House.
However, said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “The real work begins now. This is the first real opportunity that gunowners have had in recent memory to go on the offensive. We need to immediately begin pushing for an expansion of the armed pilots program, and perhaps equally important to homeland security, we need to pass national concealed carry legislation for private citizens.”
“Tuesday’s monumental victory was not merely a victory for Republicans,” Gottlieb observed. “It was a victory for the Second Amendment, and for all of those law-abiding citizens who volunteered in campaigns, who put up signs, sent money, rang doorbells, made telephone calls and worked so hard to protect their individual right to keep and bear arms.”
Return to Archive Index