The Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms are transmitting to each of the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates the “2008 Presidential Gun Rights Pledge.”
In a letter to the candidates, SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb and CCRKBA Executive Director Mark A. Taff note, “It is not enough for a candidate for this nation’s highest political office to merely mouth ‘support’ for the Second Amendment. Whoever occupies the presidency must be someone who holds the Second Amendment to be as important to individual liberty as all the other tenets of our Bill of Rights.”
“We’re asking each of the candidates to sign this pledge and go on the record in stating that the Second Amendment affirms a fundamental, individual civil right,” Gottlieb said. “We’ve heard them all claim to support the Second Amendment, but an individual civil right should not be infringed, and 85 million American gun owners have a right to know whether people who want to be trusted with the nation’s highest office are firm believers in the concept of liberty and individual freedom.”
From the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms:
As a candidate for the presidency of the United States, I
_____________ (name)
promise to both protect and defend the Second Amendment as a fundamental individual civil right.
I hereby pledge that, if elected, I will neither seek, support or sign any legislation to renew or expand the ban on so-called “assault weapons” which are in reality sport-utility rifles, and that if such a bill arrives at my desk, I will veto the measure.
Likewise, I will not support or sign any legislation designed to close a mythical “gun show loophole” thereby putting such gatherings out of business because studies have shown that armed criminals do not obtain firearms from gun shows.
I further pledge to support efforts to expand concealed carry by American citizens, and to sign legislation that would require all states to honor the concealed carry licenses issued by other states or face loss of federal funding.
Lastly, I promise that if elected, I will nominate strict constructionist judges to the federal bench, and to the Supreme Court of the United States should a seat on that court become vacant.
Signed: ______________________ Date: ___________
Please return to:
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
James Madison Building
12500 N.E. Tenth Place
Bellevue, WA 98005
Wouldn’t it be wonderful of McCain would go ahead and sign this? This would do a lot to endear him with the Conservatives. We all know neither Obama or Clinton would ever sign such a pledge … and if they did we would know that they’re lying.
