Public Employee Press

2012 ELECTION
Danger at home, danger abroad
Beware the Republican response to Gun Violence

Early in his career, Mitt Romney supported several gun control laws.

Nearly 20 years ago, he supported the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, signed into law by President Clinton in 1993 and named after James Brady, who was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney signed a ban on assault weapons, saying, "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."

But time marches on and positions change.

These days, Romney is opposed to any further gun control legislation. He now says, "I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all federal approach."

The platform adopted at the Republican National Convention condemns "frivolous lawsuits against gun manufacturers," recognizes "the right to obtain and store ammunition without registration," and "opposes legislation that is intended to restrict our Second Amendment rights by limiting the capacity of clips or magazines or otherwise restoring the ill-considered Clinton gun ban."

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