by With Mitt Romney’s pick of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to be his running mate, I wanted to know where Ryan stood on guns and gun control. I know where Ryan stands on economic issues but what about guns.
It’s a good record. He has been both rated A and endorsed by the NRA-PVF going back to at least 2002. The archives don’t go back any further than that.
Gun Owners of America rates him an A. They define this as “A & A- Pro-Gun Voter: philosophically sound.”
On The Issues has this on his record on gun rights:
- Voted YES on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers. (Oct 2005)
- Voted YES on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse. (Apr 2003)
- Voted YES on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1. (Jun 1999)
- Rated A by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun rights voting record. (Dec 2003)
- National cross-state standard for concealed carry. (Jan 2009)
- Ban gun registration & trigger lock law in Washington DC. (Mar 2007)
- Allow reloading spent military small arms ammunition. (Apr 2009)
More recently, he was a co-sponsor of HR 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, and HR 615, the Collectible Firearms Protection Act, which allows M-1 Garands and M-1 Carbines to be repatriated without State Department approval.
Ryan is also an outdoorsman. He reportedly proposed to his wife Janna at his favorite fishing lake in Wisconsin. Moreover, in what will drive the PETAfiles nuts, he includes pictures of deer and turkey that he shot on his Congressional campaign website. Here is Ryan with a nice 8-pointer.
With regard to the contempt vote for Attorney General Eric Holder, Ryan said Holder brought it upon himself for stonewalling the Oversight Committee in the investigation of Operation Fast and Furious. The video of this interview can be seen here.
On the Department of Justice’s handling of the “Fast and Furious” operation:
Paul Ryan: Attorney General Eric Holder brought this upon himself. He has been stonewalling Congress for 16 months and, yes, he can avoid this if he brings the documents that have been requested for months.
NeilCavuto: Do you think a lot of cynics will say quickly that this is along party lines and this is sort of like a Republican cabal to embarrass the Attorney General and embarrass the White House. What are you saying?
Paul Ryan: I think what’s embarrassing is “Fast and Furious.” It is something that should never happen ever again and we need to get to the bottom of it. All Congress is doing is its job, detailed in the Constitution, to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. We have separation of powers for a very important reason, to preserve liberty and limits to government, and this is being infringed upon by this stonewalling so we are just doing our jobs here in the Legislative Branch.
Finally, here is what a much younger Paul Ryan had to say to C-Span about gun control laws back in 1998 when he was a Congressman-elect. (Thanks to TTAG for the pointer on this.)
Paul Ryan is the real deal on guns & outdoor issues. His policy wonkish ways aren't limited to economics.
And I would note, that Mrs. Ryan – Janna – is an Okie and a smart one at that. Hmm, reminds me of someone else I know. 🙂
This day just keeps getting better
Thanks for compiling this! Much appreciated.
My pleasure.
Thanks, and nice to know! Ryan is so much better in so many ways than the other names that were floated around!
Thanks for hunting all this down, and just MORE good news for us!
The deer pic is nice, as deer are pests. Now let's seen one of Ryan with a dead wild boar.
See my post below. He's killed far more hogs than most people I know.
Turn's out he's not hardly as pro-gun as he's being portrayed here. So far, not as bad as McCain who went a lot further in the crusade against gun shows and achieved real world results in Oregon as I recall, but more than enough to show he's no true friend of gun owners.
Not a surprise, almost no one in the Congress is (I count 2-3 right now), and, sure, it would appear that this first minimal examination that he's moved with the success of the RKBA as of late, but we should temper our enthusiasm.
On The Issues has this on his record on gun rights:I wish all politicians were this pro gun.
Voted YES on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers. (Oct 2005)
Voted YES on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse. (Apr 2003)
Voted YES on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1. (Jun 1999)
Rated A by the NRA, indicating a pro-gun rights voting record. (Dec 2003)
National cross-state standard for concealed carry. (Jan 2009)
Ban gun registration & trigger lock law in Washington DC. (Mar 2007)
Allow reloading spent military small arms ammunition. (Apr 2009)
More recently, he was a co-sponsor of HR 822, the National Right-to-Carry Reciprocity Act, and HR 615, the Collectible Firearms Protection Act, which allows M-1 Garands and M-1 Carbines to be repatriated without State Department approval.
It's my contention that one or a few anti-gun votes are more illuminating that a host of pro-gun votes and actions, e.g. look at how Harry Reid felt the heat and saw the light early in the last decade after Gore's 2000 defeat made inescapably obvious to national level Democrats that gun grabbing was fatally crippling.
This 1999 vote was perhaps for a NRA "compromise" that perhaps would have omitted liability for those holding gun shows for those thrown in jail for otherwise innocently agreeing to sell a gun in the parking lot, but there's no way to score it as other than seriously anti-RKBA, part of the effort in that period to destroy gun shows and a beginning wedge to put all private transactions under the NICS.
So all in all, for now I'll score him as a "guns for me, but not necessarily for thee" politician.
Color me skeptical of any "findings" at this time. After all votes are being actively sought after. I have a hard time displaying "trust" toward anybody who is a politician. YMMV
Regardless of WHO or WHAT any politician is, it shall remain our responsibility as lawful gun owners to not give up the fight to retain our rights.
I spent about an hour with Paul talking about feral hog management, the use of judas sows and effectiveness of helicopters in reducing herd numbers. Family has a ranch in Oklahoma and they love to play guns there.
I'd also point out, he is wicked accurate with both a handguns and an M4. Easily the best shot I've seen in congress in those regards. Would not surprise me at all if I learned he had competed in a 3 gun match or two (or a dozen). He is the real deal.
@Countertop: Thanks for adding this into the discussion of Ryan and guns. It is definitely a plus in my book.
Ryan seems legit. You don't get to be a good shot talking game…otherwise most gun bloggers would be better shooters. 😉
Mitt blows with the wind. The wind has been coming our way ever since he left MA. And the recent shootings – as horrible as they were – did nothing to slow the view of most Americans on this issue. In a counter-logical sense, it appears to have hardened resolve that gun control won't work (according to polls in Florida, Colorado and Wisconsin).
Will we see the obligatory gun control question in the debates? Almost surely. I think they'll set Mitt up to look weak on pro-gun positions. His "no new laws" comments are getting old, but they'll hold the line. Obama already bit on gun control, so Mitt doesn't have to do anything more than "nothing" to stay more pro-gun that his opponent. Not sure what Team Obama was thinking on that one, other than the obvious ploy of trying to razz their base. It's all he has left.
Announcing Ryan's pick broke the Bain bashing and tax shelter talk. Timing was smart. Unless the Dems have something we have not seen, any talk about Ryan will cover entitlements, budgets or (only in the extreme circumstance) guns. Those are all losers for Obama. So I expect them to avoid Ryan like the plague. Mitt is the one they are going to attack.
"We're not talking about Ryan because this is a race for the Presidency…"
It'll be interesting to see how Mitt deploys Ryan. I expect we'll see a lot of him in the front of the line in the swing states.