{"id":3406,"date":"2008-06-26T17:01:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-26T23:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/many-n-m-politicos-praise-overturning-of-d-c-gun-ban\/"},"modified":"2008-06-26T17:01:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-26T23:01:00","slug":"many-n-m-politicos-praise-overturning-of-d-c-gun-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/many-n-m-politicos-praise-overturning-of-d-c-gun-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Many N.M. politicos praise overturning of D.C. gun ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Many New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> politicians lined up today to praise the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision to affirm the right of Americans to have guns in their homes for self-defense. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Failing to comment on the first time in history that the high court has declared an individual right to possess a gun, however, was New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s gun-toting Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The high court made the ruling by striking down a Washington<\/st1:city>, D.C.<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> ban on handguns in homes and requirements that other firearms be equipped with trigger locks or disassembled. You can read more from the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s two U.S. Senate candidates praised the decision.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cI have always believed the Second Amendment guarantees all law-abiding citizens the right to own firearms,\u201d Democrat Tom Udall<\/a> said. \u201cI support overturning the D.C. law because it is too restrictive and contradicts the Second Amendment. While this decision is a great victory for the Constitution, it does not mean we can stop being vigilant, and as a senator I will continue to fight to protect the rights of law-abiding gun-owners.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cI applaud the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision to affirm the right of individuals to keep and bear arms,\u201d said Republican Steve Pearce<\/a>. \u201cThe ability to defend yourself and your family within your own home is a fundamental right all Americans must be able to exercise. With this ruling of the court, we have set an important precedent of Second Amendment rights for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In a separate news release, Pearce accused Udall of a flip-flop on Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s gun law, saying the Democrat twice voted against overturning the city\u2019s gun ban.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is breathtaking in its scope and intellectual dishonesty. Tom Udall has consistently opposed the rights of individuals to own guns and it is an outrage and an insult to the people of New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> for him to say otherwise,\u201d Pearce said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Though Washington<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> is a federal zone, the city is granted the ability to make its own laws by Congress. Udall campaign spokeswoman Marissa Padilla responded to Pearce\u2019s attack with this statement:<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are numerous attempts to overturn D.C. laws in Congress, and Tom Udall has voted against those amendments because he believes Congress should not be telling Washingtonians how to run their city,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Others praising the high court\u2019s ruling in statements included Bernalillo County Sheriff and 1st Congressional District Republican candidate Darren White<\/a>, Democratic 2nd Congressional District Democratic candidate Harry Teague<\/a>, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici<\/a> and U.S. Rep. Heather Wilson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman<\/a>, a Democrat, was less positive in his statement.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cUnder our system of government, the Constitution means what the Supreme Court says it means, and the court has determined the Second Amendment right is an individual right. The implications of that decision and how it will affect communities across the country, however, remain unclear,\u201d Bingaman said.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Where\u2019s the governor?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson, who has long been a defender of individuals\u2019 rights to own guns and a friend of the National Rifle Association<\/a>, did not release a statement today or respond to requests for comment on the high court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> is a high-profile supporter of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama<\/a>, who has been hammered all day by Republicans following an ABC News report<\/a> about his backtracking on a previous statement from his campaign that the D.C. gun ban was constitutional.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

An Obama staffer told the Chicago Tribune<\/a> last year that \u201cObama believes the D.C. handgun law is constitutional.\u201d Today, the campaign said that was \u201cobviously an inartful attempt to explain the senator\u2019s consistent position.\u201d As noted by The Politico\u2019s Ben Smith<\/a>, it may have been inartful, \u201cbut it wasn\u2019t ambiguous.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What is Obama\u2019s position? Obama\u2019s campaign told The Politico<\/a> today for a second article that the candidate believes generally that the Constitution \u201cdoesn\u2019t prevent local and state governments from enacting their own laws.\u201d But he refused to directly answer questions about whether he believes Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>\u2019s gun ban was constitutional.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Republican presidential candidate John McCain<\/a> struck at Obama\u2019s ambiguity.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\u201cDoes Barack Obama believe that the D.C. handgun ban was constitutional or unconstitutional? We can\u2019t tell and Barack Obama won\u2019t say,\u201d McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said in a news release. \u201cOne would think that a candidate for our nation\u2019s highest office and a self-described constitutional expert would be able to answer that simple question.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

McCain praised the court\u2019s ruling, calling it \u201ca landmark victory for Second Amendment freedom in the United States<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>. For this first time in the history of our Republic, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms was and is an individual right as intended by our Founding Fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Richardson<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> has his own concealed-carry permit. His past statements and actions, which you can read about by clicking here<\/a>, suggest he\u2019s probably with McCain on this issue.<\/p>\n

\n

Update, June 27, 1:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

\n

Politicians who released statements praising the high court\u2019s ruling after this article was originally published were Republican 2nd District candidate Ed Tinsley<\/a>, Democratic 1st District candidate Martin Heinrich<\/a> and Republican 3rd District candidate Dan East<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Many New Mexico politicians lined up today to praise the U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s decision to affirm the right of Americans to have guns in their homes for self-defense. Failing to comment on the first time in history that the high court has declared an individual right to possess a gun, however, was New Mexico\u2019s gun-toting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}