One question I get from GOP activists, in the run-up and especially since the convention, is “Isn’t Mike McFadden anti-gun?”<\/p>\n
Now, if the GOP’s endorsed Senate candidate has taken criticism for anything, it’s being a little enigmatic on some of his answers to policy questions. \u00a0That is, obviously, going to have to change soon. \u00a0And I suspect it will.<\/p>\n
But if there’s one issue where McFadden’s been scrutinized pretty carefully, it’s guns. \u00a0And the fact is this: \u00a0McFadden supported the “gun show background check”. \u00a0And let’s be honest; a lot of people did, including a lot of pro-gun people who hadn’t thought through all the ramifications (it’d be a de facto<\/em> gun registry). \u00a0And I’m going to guess it was an idea that tested out well in focus groups with mixed bags of voters who also didn’t know the issue all that well.<\/p>\n But then McFadden ran up against Minnesota’s shooters – the single best-organized mass of activists in Minnesota. \u00a0And the shooters howled. \u00a0And McFadden has spent the past three months walking back the gun-show registration idea.<\/p>\n Beyond that, McFadden had nothing objectionable to say (and yes, “what he says” is what we have to go by, since he has no voting record).<\/p>\n So I have two responses:<\/p>\n Flip?<\/strong>: \u00a0Has McFadden flipped on gun-show background checks? \u00a0Hopefully. \u00a0He’s certainly been vocal about not being anti-Second-Amendment at his speeches – it was pretty much the first item on the agenda of his speeches I heard in March and April. \u00a0I have no problem with people flipping, by the way, provided they flip in the right direction. \u00a0He rates some further scrutiny – gotta keep politicians honest – but I think we’ve got the basis for some optimism.<\/p>\n Perspective<\/strong>: \u00a0Let’s say for a moment that McFadden is generally pro-gun, with a few minor warts. \u00a0Now, I know “incrementalism” is a dirty word for some of you out there, but a Senator who generally supports the Second Amendment, even with a few flash-points of disagreement, will be an improvement at the national level over Al Franken, who only wants “Organizing for America” to be armed.<\/p>\n Discuss.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One question I get from GOP activists, in the run-up and especially since the convention, is “Isn’t Mike McFadden anti-gun?” Now, if the GOP’s endorsed Senate candidate has taken criticism for anything, it’s being a little enigmatic on some of his answers to policy questions. \u00a0That is, obviously, going to have to change soon. \u00a0And […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[80,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senator-franken","category-victim-disarmament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44683,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44681\/revisions\/44683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}