GOP candidates appeal to NRA for support

GOP candidates appeal to NRA for support

	Published : Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:02 By : Agencies Print this Story

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican Rudy Giuliani sought to reassure the National Rifle Association of his support for a constitutional right to bear arms as rivals Fred Thompson and John McCain focused on the former New York mayor's past calls for tough gun control.

'I'd like us to respect each other; I think we have very, very legitimate and mostly similar views,' Giuliani told NRA members who clapped politely a dozen times during his 20-minute speech.

The audience of about 500 people gave a warmer reception to Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who announced his campaign this month. Some stood and cheered as Thompson said: 'Our basic rights come from God, not from government.'

'I have never subscribed to the notion that we made our country safer by infringing on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens,' Thompson said.

And he reminded the group he has supported them consistently since 1994, the year he was elected senator.

'It's not just a matter of promises made, as far as I'm concerned. It's a matter of commitments that have been kept,' he said in a veiled swipe at Giuliani.

The candidates addressed the NRA event as gun violence occurred on a college campus. Two students were shot and wounded, one seriously, at Delaware State University, and the campus was locked down as police searched for a gunman, according to officials.

McCain criticized Giuliani outright, describing the former mayor's devious attempt to bankrupt gun manufacturers with a lawsuit against them over violent crimes involving guns. A federal court heard arguments on the ongoing lawsuit Friday in New York.

The Arizona senator also mentioned Giuliani's use of the word 'extremists' in talking about the NRA.

'My friends, gun owners are not extremists; you are the core of modern America,' McCain said. 'The Second Amendment is unique in the world and at the core of our constitutional freedoms. It guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. To argue anything else is to reject the clear meaning of our founding fathers.

On the Second Amendment, Giuliani has said the right to bear arms applies to militias but also said recently that it applies to individuals.

He described the NRA as 'extremists' in a 1995 interview with PBS' Charlie Rose: 'The NRA, for some reason, I think goes way overboard. It's almost what the extremists on the other side do. I think the extremists of the left and the extremists of the right have essentially the same tactic -- the slippery slope theory. `If you give one point, then your entire argument is going to fall apart,' and we kind of get destroyed by that,' Giuliani said.

On Friday, Giuliani told the group: 'You never get a candidate you agree with 100 percent -- I'm not sure I even agree with myself 100 percent,' he said, as some in the crowd chuckled. 'You have to figure out who's electable, who can win. Because if we make a mistake about that, this country is going to go in a direction that I think you and I very much disagree with.'