Giuliani Tries To Win Over NRA

Republican Rivals Focus On Former Mayor's Past Support For Gun Control

(CBS/AP)  Are pigs flying? Is hell freezing over? Maybe not; but Rudy Giuliani - for the first time ever - did speak to the National Rifle Association today.

The Republican presidential candidate sought to reassure the NRA of his support for a constitutional right to bear arms, as rivals Fred Thompson and John McCain focused on the former New York mayor's past calls for tough gun control.

"I'd like us to respect each other; I think we have very, very legitimate and mostly similar views," Giuliani told NRA members who clapped politely a dozen times during his 20-minute speech.

The audience of about 500 people gave a warmer reception to Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who announced his campaign this month. Some stood and cheered as Thompson said: "Our basic rights come from God, not from government."

"I've never subscribed to the notion that we made our country safer by infringing on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens," Thompson said.

And he reminded the group he has supported them consistently since 1994, the year he was elected senator.

"It's not just a matter of promises made, as far as I'm concerned. It's a matter of commitments that have been kept," he said in a veiled swipe at Giuliani.

The candidates addressed the NRA event as gun violence occurred on a college campus. Two students were shot and wounded, one seriously, at Delaware State University, and the campus was locked down as police searched for a gunman, according to officials.

McCain criticized Giuliani outright, describing the former mayor's "devious attempt to bankrupt gun manufacturers" with a lawsuit against them over violent crimes involving guns. A federal court heard arguments on the ongoing lawsuit Friday in New York.

The Arizona senator also mentioned Giuliani's use of the word "extremists" in talking about the NRA.

"My friends, gun owners are not extremists; you are the core of modern America," McCain said. "The Second Amendment is unique in the world and at the core of our constitutional freedoms. It guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms. To argue anything else is to reject the clear meaning of our founding fathers."

On the Second Amendment, Giuliani has said the right to bear arms applies to militias but also said recently that it applies to individuals.

As Mayor of New York in the 1990s, Giuliani's views were of a very different caliber: He stood with President Clinton to get a ban on assault weapons; said new federal laws were needed; he backed licensing for handguns; praised ex-President Bush for quitting the NRA; and assailed some of the organization's views.

He described the NRA as "extremists" in a 1995 interview with PBS' Charlie Rose: "The NRA, for some reason, I think goes way overboard. It's almost what the extremists on the other side do," Giuliani said.

Today, Giuliani was striking very different notes: "The time spent focusing on law-abiding legal gun owners is time taken away from arresting and prosecuting and disabling the criminals who use guns."

One of the odder moments in his talk came when he apparently took a cell phone call from his wife Judith. "I love you," he said at the podium.

[Mitt Romney's campaign was quick to point out that Giuliani received the exact same call three months earlier.]

NRA President Wayne LaPierre says the ex-mayor has some work to do in courting the gun rights movement. "How he deals with it will be very important to the 90 million citizens who own firearms that want this freedom defended," he said.

Giuliani's one-time ally in the gun control movement Paul Helmke, President & CEO of the Brady Campaign, said, "Rudy Giuliani I think really does want common sense gun laws," and is trying to sell that message to a critical audience.

On Friday Giuliani told the group: "You never get a candidate you agree with 100 percent - I'm not sure I even agree with myself 100 percent," he said, as some in the crowd chuckled. "You have to figure out who's electable, who can win. Because if we make a mistake about that, this country is going to go in a direction that I think you and I very much disagree with."

CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield said that Giuliani might like the support of the NRA and its allies, but it's not critical that he get it. But in a Republican Party where four in ten are gun owners what is critical for Giuliani is that they do not see him as their enemy.

[taotxzen]

Test

[infidel_us]

I object to the name'' Blackwater.'' Why is it that everything bad has to be black? Clinton was involved in ''WHITEwater'', and that wasn''t bad........but BLACKwater is! You crackers are racist! :)

[pastdue1]

Is Giuliana now for arming everyone. It seems his GOP partners are now in the practice of arming the insurgents, via Blackwater, who shoot at our troops. We haven''t heard him condemn that practice ~ he condemns moveon.org for an ad and is strangely silent about Blackwater USA.

[smirk5]

Does the NRA have a commandment concerning not shooting your hunting partners in the face? Didn''t Cheney break that one?

[jsilver2th]

That phone call was SOOOO fake! A little stage craft to make him look like your average Joe and humanize him even if he was off-message for the gun nuts-

If I was Romney or one of the other goons I demand he produce a record of where that call came from- dollars to donuts it came from a campaign flak probably right in the building-

[likeitis5050]

my2centss He can do it because he is from the school of ''read my lips'' and ''restore personal integrity to the White House''...campaign platform speeches that got his mentor/heros elected. He models himself after Bush, which means say what ever it takes to get in and then do as you da...mn well please from there on out. He''s arrogant, self-centered, hypocritical, and deeply devoted to one philosophy: my way or the highway and any one not with me is my enemy. I hope all these gluttons for punishment who bought Bush''s c//rap hook line and sinker just stay home on election day because this country can''t stand another 4 years of their stupidity at the voting booth.

[my2centss]

Why is it that the 90 million gun owners and 4 million NRA members only matter to Giuliani before an election? Its like going against drivers or retirees, then right before an election telling AAA and AARP how you have always supported them.

[likeitis5050]

When are these clowns going to realize that everything ''''right-wing''''
tnichlsn

It''s not just the extreme right we need to worry about. Extreme is the operative word. Nothing is going to be solved by going from extreme right to extreme left. The extremists are running this country and in the next election we need to be very careful we aren''t just swapping out one extreme for another. I believe, for the most part, people want balance. Why do we have to give up patriotism and familiy values in order to have a government that looks out for every citizen, not just the wealthy and impoverished. Why does it have to be one extreme or the other...either you support Bush or you are anti-American...his stupid quote. I don''t think illegal immigrants have a right to complain about a d..amn thing, but I''ll fight for the right of any legal immigrant to be given every opportunity to succeed and support what ever they do to make that happen as an American immigrant. I hate violence and don''t own a gun but you better believe I''ll fight to make sure it doesn''t become illegal for citizens to protect themselves by owning one. Politics in general is not a very trustworthy field. Any politician is suspect, as far as I''m concerned so I''m constantly checking to see if they appear to be seeking balance rather than approval from one extreme group over another.

[v_1618]

Rudy Giuliani is the most hypocrit person on earth... his smile exposes what he really is , a selfish arrogant hypocrit baztard .. how he can talk about god in his mouth .. kill this moth. *** baztard. that''s what he deserves a bullet in his azzz..

[mh4cbs1]

Blackwater Probed for Weapons Smuggling!

You can''''t make this stuff up! Is this NEOCON NIGHTMARE really happening?

Could our very own Blackwater civilian-murdering terrorists be selling our weapons to the Iraqi resistance?

Maybe they think they are helping to repel a foreign occupation of Iraq, by a nation that created a pretext of LIES to justify the Invasion and theft of the vast Iraqi Oil Reserves?

Maybe Blackwater just wanted to keep the war going? It is after all very profitable when you are making 10 times the money that the US troops are making.

Maybe they kill civilians because it is good target practice. Why not? There are no laws against it! They are not subject to US laws, Iraqi laws, or even the military code of conduct.

Maybe they want more of the $$ action, since they see all the other corporations looting the American treasury, like Cheney''''s Haliburton, the Carlye Group and countless other politically connected sleazy War Profiteers.

This Horrific, Needless WAR OF AGGRESSION was all based on WMD and Saddam-link LIES. Deliberate LIES from Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet and even Bush (to the extent he even knows what is really going on). And this is a WAR CRIME, for which

BUSH and CHENEY belong in JAIL!!!

[mh4cbs1]

Blackwater Probed for Weapons Smuggling!

You can''''t make this stuff up! Is this NEOCON NIGHTMARE really happening?

Could our very own Blackwater civilian-murdering terrorists be selling our weapons to the Iraqi resistance?

Maybe they think they are helping to repel a foreign occupation of Iraq, by a nation that created a pretext of LIES to justify the Invasion and theft of the vast Iraqi Oil Reserves?

Maybe Blackwater just wanted to keep the war going? It is after all very profitable when you are making 10 times the money that the US troops are making.

Maybe they kill civilians because it is good target practice. Why not? There are no laws against it! They are not subject to US laws, Iraqi laws, or even the military code of conduct.

Maybe they want more of the $$ action, since they see all the other corporations looting the American treasury, like Cheney''''s Haliburton, the Carlye Group and countless other politically connected sleazy War Profiteers.

This Horrific, Needless WAR OF AGGRESSION was all based on WMD and Saddam-link LIES. Deliberate LIES from Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet and even Bush (to the extent he even knows what is really going on). And this is a WAR CRIME, for which

BUSH and CHENEY belong in JAIL!!!

[mh4cbs1]

Blackwater Probed for Weapons Smuggling!

You can''''t make this stuff up! Is this NEOCON NIGHTMARE really happening?

Could our very own Blackwater civilian-murdering terrorists be selling our weapons to the Iraqi resistance?

Maybe they think they are helping to repel a foreign occupation of Iraq, by a nation that created a pretext of LIES to justify the Invasion and theft of the vast Iraqi Oil Reserves?

Maybe Blackwater just wanted to keep the war going? It is after all very profitable when you are making 10 times the money that the US troops are making.

Maybe they kill civilians because it is good target practice. Why not? There are no laws against it! They are not subject to US laws, Iraqi laws, or even the military code of conduct.

Maybe they want more of the $$ action, since they see all the other corporations looting the American treasury, like Cheney''''s Haliburton, the Carlye Group and countless other politically connected sleazy War Profiteers.

This Horrific, Needless WAR OF AGGRESSION was all based on WMD and Saddam-link LIES. Deliberate LIES from Cheney, Rumsfeld, Tenet and even Bush (to the extent he even knows what is really going on). And this is a WAR CRIME, for which

BUSH and CHENEY belong in JAIL!!!

[lambofgoth]

"Our rights come from God and not the Government" - with that language, we can now be assured who the Republican nominee will be...

And jack the lone ranger or whatever your name is, can you take the end of that gun, stick it in your mouth and show us how it works please? The world needs a demonstration from what you loonies.

[tnichlsn]

if someone invents a shoulder launched nuclear device, these clowns will say it''s constitutionally protected!

[cfin5]

jcr103,.....Being that I am a Constitutionalist and govern myself to what it says literally, who do you think you are calling folks like us "lunatic fringe in society"? Liberals are the ones who "allegorize" the words in our Constitution to twist their meaning into a pet view. The authors wrote them down in plain english to be understood "literally" by the people. So the document is basically like a verbal math equation that when its words are added up, you come to the "sum" of its meaning. This then gives you the proper understanding to what it means to be an American. By holding this understanding, I am a true centrist as the Constitution for our country is its foundation. I''m not thirsty for any allegorical changes by precedent to it. In saying all this, I have exposed YOU as part of "the lunatic fringe in society".

[jackhighland]

Hi Posters! I''ve owned a gun since the 1980s and been a member of the NRA since then.

You left-wing yuppies ought to try some sensitivity to those of us who are not just like you. I guess you don''t know anyone in your ghetto who dosn''t think like you, or at least pubicly espouse the party line.

Perhaps some diversity training is in order.

And try a past-life regression if you want to remember what its like to be bombed by the US Army Air Corps.

Louzy nazis.

[tnichlsn]

When are these clowns going to realize that everything ''right-wing'' about the GOP now is seen as causing the current disaster that is politics in the US and the state of our nation. Instead of fawning over these lunatics like the Christian coalition and the NRA, they should be running away from them. It''s going to be 20 years before another GOP candidate is elected president as a result of the priorities foisted upon the country by these outer fringe fascists from the right.

[jcr103]

What a surprise! Another Republican sucking up to the lunatic fringe in society.

[taotxzen]

Drummer I agree with the non equipment of our troops. They claim (republicans ) that we do not care for our troops and the administration have not gotten those MRAP''''s to the troops yet. They (republicans ) say it is too expensive to fly over they can get tanks etc over there I think it another lie I bet they do not even have them manufactured yet. Yesterdays tantrum on how we do not care for the troops. Well who really cares tell me that.

There you have it sticks...

[cfin5]

Go home RG. We haven''t forgot the lawsuits you and your un-american hordes put us through. This schmoozin'' of yours is just another "Bridge to nowhere" to the likes of us. Got no time to flirt with a sheep coated, election cycle politician with a wolf fang voting record behind your words. Fred''s record is barely tolerable for me too. We need a Second Amendment protector........Ron Paul, the unsocialist!