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Romney Supports Ban on Weapons of 'Extraordinary Lethality' |
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By Susan Jones December 17, 2007 |
| Republican
presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was asked about his "retreat" on gun
control Sunday, just one of the issues raised in his appearance on
NBC's "Meet the Press." Host Tim Russert asked Romney about his earlier support for strong gun control laws, noting that in his 1994 Senate race againt Ted Kennedy, Romney backed two gun-control measures -- the Brady Bill with its waiting period on gun sales; and the renewal of a 1994 ban on "assault" weapons. At the time, Romney said he didn't "line up with the NRA." But when he decided to run for president, Romney signed up for a lifetime membership in the National Rifle Association. Romney on Sunday said that he did support the assault weapons ban. But he hedged on whether he's still for it: "Let me describe it," he said to Russert, as Russert pressed him to say whether he still supports the ban. "I would have supported the original assault weapon ban," Romney said. "I signed an assault weapon ban as Massachusetts governor because it provided for a relaxation of licensing requirements for gun owners in Massachusetts, which was a big plus. And so both the pro-gun and the anti-gun lobby came together with a bill, and I signed that. "And if there is determined to be, from time to time, a weapon of such lethality that it poses a grave risk to our law enforcement personnel, that's something I would consider signing. There's nothing of that nature that's being proposed today in Washington." But Romney said he "would look at weapons that pose extraordinary lethality." Russert tried again: "So the assault ban that expired...because Congress didn't act on it, you would support?" Romney noted that President Bush said he would have signed the bill if it came to his desk -- "and so would I." In the next breath, Romney said he was "pleased to have the support of the NRA when I ran for governor. I sought it, I seek it now. I'd love to have their support. I believe in the right of Americans to bear arms." (The National Rifle Association never endorsed Romney, the Washington Post reported on Monday. Romney's spokesman Kevin Madden told the newspaper, "Mitt Romney as a candidate received a respectable B grade rating from the NRA, and when he was governor he had the support of the NRA and the Gun Owners Action League in relaxing some of the state's burdensome licensing regulations." According to the Post, Madden's Democratic opponent in the 2002 governor's race had an "A" grade from the NRA.) Romney said he supports background checks on gun buyers "to make sure that the crazies don't buy guns." But he said with today's technology, there's no need for long waiting periods. "But my position is we should check on the backgrounds of people who are trying to purchase guns. We also should keep weapons of unusual lethality from being on the street. And finally, we should go after people who use guns in the commission of crimes or illegally, but we should not interfere with the right of law-abiding citizens to own guns either for their own personal protection or hunting or any other lawful purpose." Abortion: Let the states decide Where Romney once promised not to "waver" on his support for a woman having the "right to make her own choice" on having an abortion, he now supports the Republican Party platform, which says an "unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed." Romney told Russert he's always been "personally opposed to abortion," and the question for him has always been the proper role government on that issue. "I felt that the Supreme Court had spoken and that government shouldn't be involved and let people make their own decision," Romney said. Later, when he was governor of Massachusetts, Romney said a bill on cloning embryos came to his desk -- and he realized that he could not support a bill that would create human life only to destroy it. "And I didn't hide from that change of heart. I wrote an op-ed piece in The Boston Globe, described my view that I am pro-life, described why I had changed to become pro-life. I recognize it's a change. You can, you can find, you know, many, many instances of my indicating my position previous to that time of being effectively pro-choice. I didn't call myself pro-choice, but my position was effectively pro-choice. And, and, and that position changed. It changed at that point. And every piece of legislation which came to my desk in the coming years as the governor, I came down on the side of preserving the sanctity of life." Romney told Russert that he does believe "from a political perspective" that life begins at conception. "I don't pretend to know, if you will, from a theological standpoint when life begins." Romney said he did not try to change Massachusetts' abortion laws as governor because "I'd committed to the people of Massachusetts that I would not change the laws one way or the other, and I honored that commitment. But each law that was brought to my desk attempted to expand abortion rights and, in each case, I vetoed that effort." He said he also promoted abstinence education in schools. Romney said believes the next step in the effort to preserve the sanctity of life is to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion. Romney said the states -- and the people's elected representatives -- should decide the questions of "life and abortion on their own," even if that means some states would allow abortion and others would not. "I'm not promoting or fighting for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion in all 50 states," Romney said. "I am fighting for an overturning of Roe v. Wade." |
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