Democratic Candidates Shy Away From Gun Debate

Guns and guns rights, as always, remain a problem for Democratic candidates.

Part of the reason Sen. Barack Obama got into so much hot water with his economically "bitter" Pennsylvanians remarks was that he said they "cling" to guns (and religion) as compensation. And as NPR's Washington Editor Ron Elving noted Monday on Day to Day, "cling" is a word that has all kinds of bad connotations.

Meanwhile, Sen. Hillary Clinton was traveling the state talking about how her grandfather taught her to hunt and shoot. Sen. Obama pounced on this rather unexpected vignette, saying that Clinton sounded like she was "Annie Oakley." This 'champion of gun rights' tact of Clinton was unexpected because only eight years ago in a speech at the Newspaper Association of America meeting she said that "there isn't a more important task" than passing gun-safety laws.

Then the Democrats lost the 2000 presidential election. One reason, beside all the hanging chads in Florida, was that states like West Virginia, Tennessee and Arkansas (all supposedly in the Dem column) went Republican because many voters felt the Democrats were too anti-gun. And ever since, Democrats (on the federal level in particular) tip-toe around guns issues like someone trying to get around a bear in the middle of the path - you don't want to wake it up.

But in Pennsylvania guns are an issue. (The state legislature there recently defeated a measure that would have required handguns owners to tell the police if their weapons were lost or stolen.) The Associated Press has a look at guns and Pennsylvanians, the role the culture of gun ownership plays in the Democratic primary, and why politicians like Hillary Clinton suddenly want to sound like they were born with a rifle in their hands.

6:40 AM ET | 04-15-2008 | permalink