McCain seeks gun owners’ support

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Sen. John McCain courted his sometime critics within the gun lobby yesterday, telling the National Rifle Association that Democratic Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton would both undermine the rights of gun owners.

“If either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is elected president, the rights of law-abiding gun owners will be at risk, my friends — and have no doubt about it,” the Republican nominee-in-waiting told a crowd of several thousand.

Mr. McCain acknowledged he has been no darling of gun-rights advocates, having pushed through signature campaign finance legislation gun supporters say has muzzled their free speech. The Arizona senator has also favored tighter restrictions for buying weapons at gun shows.

Nonetheless, Mr. McCain said he expected the votes of gun owners in his general election campaign against either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton, the remaining Democratic presidential contenders.

“I supported campaign finance reform because I strongly believed our system of financing campaigns was influencing elected officials to put the interests of ’soft money’ ahead of the public interest,” the senator said to silence, referring to funds spent by organizations that are not contributed directly to candidate campaigns and which do not “expressly advocate” the election or defeat of a candidate.

“It is neither my purpose nor the purpose of the legislation to prevent gun owners or any other group of citizens from making their voices heard in the legislative process,” he said. “Those disagreements do not detract from my long record of support for the Second Amendment and the work we have done together to protect the rights of gun owners.”

Earlier, after visiting a gun store in St. Albans, W.Va., where he bought a rod, bobbers and other fishing equipment, Mr. McCain said the only gun controls he favors are limits to keep guns from people with criminal backgrounds or indications of mental problems.

He added that, as president, he would sign a law that prohibited individuals from buying guns at a gun show without going through the same checks as those buying guns at regular stores.

Mr. McCain’s visit to West Virginia, a general election battleground state, and his appearance at an NRA convention in Kentucky, were aimed at assuring gun owners a McCain administration would not infringe upon their rights.

The senator’s gun record could be troubling to conservatives, former members of the military and Southerners, to whom guns and hunting are prominent elements of their culture. Yet in comparison to his potential Democratic rivals, Mr. McCain could be viewed as the most supportive of gun rights.

He told the NRA that Democrats have learned since the 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush not to talk about gun control. He jabbed repeatedly at Mr. Obama, the Illinois senator who leads the Democratic delegate count, including deriding him for a recent comment about Pennsylvanians “clinging to guns and religion” during periods of economic stress.

Mrs. Clinton also criticized Mr. Obama for the remark, prompting the Illinois senator to accuse the former first lady of acting “like she’s on the duck blind every Sunday, packin’ a six-shooter!”

As the NRA audience laughed, Mr. McCain said: “Someone should tell Senator Obama that ducks are usually hunted with shotguns.”