GUNS: Candidates take cover on gun questions

July 5, 2002

BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

At one time last year, it appeared Election 2002 might produce the biggest test of gun politics in Michigan history.

That's when it seemed likely a proposal to repeal the state's newly liberalized concealed-weapons law would be on the ballot and candidates would be forced to take sides in a fight between gun-rights and gun-control factions.

If anyone had asked then, Attorney General Jennifer Granholm would have been pegged as a member of the gun-control camp (she was on the original steering committee of the group that pushed the ballot proposal).

So how is it that Granholm is now taking a position that her former allies characterize as the "gun nut approach" on the Second Amendment, a position described by the antigun Million Moms as the "extremist view" of the National Rifle Association?

Granholm was one of four candidates to answer in the affirmative when asked in a Free Press survey whether she believed the Second Amendment was intended to protect the right of an individual to keep and bear arms.

Democrats James Blanchard and David Bonior also said yes, as did Republican Dick Posthumus. Only Republican Joe Schwarz took the contrary view, long relied on by gun-control advocates that the amendment was meant to preserve the right of states to maintain armed militias.

One possible answer is that when the Michigan Supreme Court nixed the ballot proposal, the political dynamic of guns in 2002 was turned topsy-turvy. Gone was an issue that could have galvanized the Million Moms, replaced by the stark reality that the always galvanized gun-rights groups could play a critical role in a low-turnout, off-year election.

Hence, although all of the Democrats are on record saying they would have vetoed the new CCW law, in the Free Press survey none said they would revise the law to restore the discretion of county gun boards to deny permits. Schwarz was the only contrarian.

Granholm subsequently submitted a revised answer, saying she would give counties discretion to deny permits when an applicant's mental health history is not clearly documented. (She added "the most complex problems of our time cannot always be answered in a single word to conform to a convenient chart.")

On balance, no one in the field -- except Schwarz and Granholm after the revision -- submitted answers that would automatically exclude them from consideration for an NRA endorsement.

That may come as a disappointment to the anti-gun forces that were prepared to go to war over the CCW ballot proposal.

David Fink -- an Oakland County attorney who was a leader in the ballot drive, is a Granholm endorser and is now running for Congress -- said he was surprised by the candidates' unwillingness to seek changes in the CCW law. He called the individual rights interpretation of the Second Amendment, endorsed by all but Schwarz, "a load of crap."

But he shouldn't have been surprised. Nationally, Democrats are widely reported to have backed away from aggressive advocacy of new gun restrictions. The shift is attributed to former presidential candidate Al Gore's loss in 2000 in several traditionally Democratic states with strong pro-gun sentiments and to the party's desire to pick up congressional seats in some of those areas this year.

In Michigan, the picture isn't as clear. Gore won here (51 percent-46 percent) despite an effort by gun rights groups to undermine him. Polls consistently show majority support among state residents for measures to reduce the number of privately-held guns.

Yet those same polls usually show that a relatively small number of voters are passionate about guns. And among the passionate, most political analysts agree the gun rights view is dominant.

Without a specific reason to do so -- like a ballot proposal that requires taking sides -- candidates of both major parties are loathe to provoke the sides.

Ken Brock, a Lansing-based consultant who managed 1994 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Howard Wolpe, noted their campaign was one of only a handful in recent memory that tried to make gun control a key issue in Michigan. Wolpe aired commercials touting his resolve to get guns off the streets.

Brock said they calculated that many gun rights voters were already committed to Republican Gov. John Engler, so "we decided to write them off."

"It was purely a Hail Mary," he said. "We hoped to get Engler to say something stupid. He didn't."

Brock said he would advise candidates to heed the same advice Engler followed then: When it comes to guns, silence is golden.

Contact DAWSON BELL at 313-222-6609 or dbell@freepress.com.