As GOP contender Newt Gingrich surges in the polls, conservative groups are finding, and exploiting, cracks in his record. Gun groups in particular are up in arms over what they’re calling Gingrich’s “anti-gun record.” They’ve even paid for robocalls to go out across the state of Iowa warning that Gingrich is no friend to the Second Amendment.
Their objection? When he was in Congress Gingrich supported legislation that made it a crime for people convicted of abusing their spouses and children to acquire guns:
A Robo-call in Iowa Friday accuses presidential candidate Newt Gingrich of having “an anti-gun record.”
It says it was paid for IowaGunOwners.org, a no-compromise gun rights group that Osceola County resident Aaron Dorr founded in 2009 to work to change state gun laws, and the National Association for Gun Rights.
“Newt supported the anti-gun Brady bill that created a national gun registry,” a male voice says.*** “Newt also supported the Lautenberg law that takes away gun rights for crimes as simple as spanking your child.”
The “Lautenberg law” the call refers to is officially called the Domestic Violence Offender Gun Ban, an amendment passed in 1996 when Republicans controlled the House. The act bans shipment, transport, ownership and use of guns or ammunition by individuals convicted of domestic violence, or who are under a restraining order for domestic abuse against a partner or child in all 50 states. The act also makes it illegal to knowingly sell or give a firearm or ammunition to domestic abusers.
A recent press release from the group Georgia Gun Owners echoes those claims and demands Gingrich “apologize to gun owners for his more than two-decade history of supporting gun control.”
The groups’ blase treatment of child abuse, dismissed in the call as “crimes as simple as spanking your child,” is particularly disturbing. Equally ridiculous is the suggestion that Gingrich isn’t sufficiently conservative or pro-Second Amendment because he supports common sense restrictions on gun ownership. Keeping guns away from people who have a record of domestic violence is a public safety issue.
Additionally, a Gingrich spokesman noted that he actually voted against the final conference report for the Brady bill.
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