Firearms Industry Warns:
Giuliani No Friend to Gun Owners
NEWTOWN, Conn.—In response to New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's
filing of a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission
yesterday, indicating that he would enter the 2008 presidential race as
a Republican, the firearms industry's trade association, the National
Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), reminded America's sportsmen and
gun-enthusiasts of the former mayor's record of hostility toward
firearms and gun-owners.
"Recent
remarks indicate the mayor is attempting to camouflage his record on
guns – a political maneuver now common for politicians seeking
national office," said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president
and general counsel.
In June of 2000, then New York City Mayor Giuliani became the lone
Republican mayor to sue members of the firearms industry as part of a
wave of lawsuits that began in the late 1990's by major metropolitan
cities like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Philadelphia
and San Francisco that sought to hold firearms manufactures responsible
for the criminal misuse of firearms. The Giuliani lawsuit is still pending
and being aggressively pursued by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Giuliani strongly opposed legislation blocking suits like the one he
filed against members of the firearms industry. In 2005, President Bush
signed legislation into law that barred such lawsuits after Congress,
by a broad bipartisan margin, passed the bill. During the debate in
Congress the Giuliani lawsuit was specifically referred to as an example
of the kind of "junk" lawsuit the law is intended to stop.
"Giuliani's lawsuit may have gained him praise in Gotham, but will
surely handicap him in the rest of the country, particularly during the
southern primaries," predicted Keane.
More
recently Giuliani's campaign has flipped-flopped on whether he continues
his longstanding support for restoring the Clinton-era federal ban on
some semi-automatic rifles based on cosmetic appearance. The so-called "assault
weapons" ban sunset in 2004. Several studies
including those by the Department of Justice and the Centers for Disease
Control showed the ban had no impact on crime largely because the banned
firearms were very rarely if ever used in crime. The ban had nothing
to do with machine guns, which have remained heavily regulated since
the early part of the last century.
According to the New York Post, Giuliani's political operative in New
Hampshire, Wayne Semprini, "has been telling voters that the mayor will
be an 'easy sell' - and that the ex-mayor 'satisfied' him that he won't
support federal assault-weapons bans, as he has in the past." All the
while Anthony Carbonetti, Giuliani's top advisor, has been telling New
Yorkers "the mayor's position on this [the assault weapons ban] has not
changed."
Commenting on this equivocation, Keane added, "You can't pretend to be a
supporter of sportsmen and gun-owners in New Hampshire when you tried to
sue the firearms industry out of existence in New York. Other
politicians learned the hard way that sportsmen and gun-owners are a
well-informed and highly motivated voting bloc. Former President Clinton
in his memoirs admitted the gun issue cost Al Gore the White House, and
Senator Kerry's ill-fated goose hunt cooked his presidential aspirations
in 2004."
Formed
in 1961, the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) is the trade
association for the firearms industry. For more information, visit www.nssf.org.
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