At Home He's a Tourist

Looking at Election 2008: Part One (of too many)
by Jason Pancake

Even though the 2008 Presidential Election is still 18 months away, politicians have been raising large amounts of money and making humorous claims earlier than ever. Take Republican candidate Mitt Romney for example. By pulling an Arnold and saying he was pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and pro-gun control, Romney (a Mormon Republican) was somehow able to get elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2003. These days however, in order to win over the Midwest, Deep South, and Methtown, USA, Romney has done a complete turnaround (or some would say, a flip-flop) and is against all those things.

Recently, Romney has even gotten cozy with the NRA and said “I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I've been a hunter pretty much all my life." Of course this is hilariously misleading. This piece in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Star-Telegram says it pretty well: “In Romneyland, "I've been a hunter pretty much all my life" means two outings: one as a 15-year-old to hunt rabbits and once last year when he joined major donors to the Republican Governors Association to shoot quail on a fenced game ranch in Georgia.” Last year's trip was an outing with major donors of the Republican Governors Association, which Romney headed at the time. These people were not exactly in the same income-level as the average gun owner. This CNN article has a full recap too and says, “An aide said Wednesday that Romney was not trying to mislead anyone, although he confirmed Romney had been hunting only on those occasions in his life.”

If I were a real hunter, I would be falling over laughing. By the way, Mitt “I’ve been a hunter pretty much all my life” Romney just joined the NRA last August. What about the old Romney who supported the Brady gun control law and a ban on assault rifles while running for Senate in 1994? "That's not going to make me the hero of the NRA," he told the Boston Herald at the time. "I don't line up with a lot of special interest groups." Even while running for Governor in 2002, he said “We do have tough gun laws in Massachusetts. I support them. I won't chip away at them. I believe they protect us and provide for our safety."

He’s an analysis of Romney’s statements regarding guns.

To be fair, he did say later that in his younger days, he used to shoot small rabbits and rodents in Utah that he didn’t need licenses to hunt, but even those claims barely qualify him as an “avid hunter.” According to an AP article, this “Lifelong hunter” Romney does not even own his own gun. It turns out the gun Romney claims to have is actually owned by his son and kept at the vacation house in the fancy resort town of Park City, Utah. He has been living in Massachusetts since 1971, he has a second home in New Hampshire, and he grew up in a wealth Michigan suburb, Bloomfield Hills. However, “officials from Michigan, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, where a license is necessary to hunt such small game, said they could not immediately locate any license for Romney.”

I know he’s just doing what he has to do to be a good born-again Republican, but sometimes it’s easy to understand why people don’t trust the government and care more passionately about Sanjaya’s hair than they do about the state of the country. I’m not singling out Romney because he “flip-flopped,” but rather because this whole issue shows how sad it is that Romney has to gain the NRA’s favor for political funding, contributions, and support. The gun lobby in this country is huge money maker and that’s what it really is: a business. It just works out well that they can profit off of America’s love of things that go “boom!” and “pow!” Unfortunately, giving crazy and desperate people easy access to guns is like leaving sharp objects or chemicals in a room with an unattended toddler. A responsible, smart kid probably won’t get hurt with them, but the dumb, mischievous kid is in trouble. Too bad there are a lot of these “dumb kids” in the US.

Update:

When recounting his hunting experience, Romney said: "Shooting a rabbit with a single-shot .22 is pretty hard, and after watching me try for a couple of weeks, [my cousins] said, `We'll slip you the semiautomatic. You'll do better with that.' And I sure did."

A couple of weeks ago, I thought this quote was merely pathetic because using a semiautomatic to shoot rabbits should barely qualify as hunting. But reading the quote after the Virginia Tech shooting is scary and sad because the same concept (how well high powered weapons work), was key in the damage done on campus. Read the Romney quote again with a slight change: “Shooting a bunch of college students with a single-shot .22 is pretty hard, and after watching me try for a couple of weeks, [my cousins] said, `We'll slip you the semiautomatic. You'll do better with that.' And I sure did.”

The Virginia Tech shooter had a semiautomatic Glock 9mm and a Walther P22. Look up their capabilities. These are devastating weapons. They were designed to be used by people to shoot more than just rabbits. If you need these guns to hunt your rabbits/quails, or if you need these to defend your mobile home, then you must either be living in the middle of Baghdad or in a nuclear fallout area that produces giant bloodthirsty mutant rabbits.


Plugs of the week: “Armed Madhouse” by Greg Palast is out on paperback this week. It should be essential reading to anyone that wants to learn about what is happening in the world.

And also check out Bill Moyer’s new series on the PBS website or on your local PBS station. He is one of the most respected journalist out there and does incredible news stories.