In addition to officially nominating Gov. Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan for President and Vice President, the GOP adopted a platform during the convention that supports “stand for you ground” laws and rejects any limitations on firearm magazine capacity.
This arguably makes the current GOP platform the most pro-gun platform in decades (if not the most pro-gun GOP platform ever).
During the last decade, “stand your ground” laws have swept through many states in our nation in much the same way concealed carry laws began doing in the late 1980s. These laws put the focus back on the rights of the citizens by allowing law-abiding citizens to defend their own lives when attacked.
Older laws in many states, even states with concealed carry laws, required that a citizen try to escape an attacker before using deadly force: “stand your ground” legislation removes that requirement so that once attacked, a citizen has the right to respond with whatever force is necessary to stop the attack.
These laws came under withering scrutiny by the mainstream media, gun control groups, and various Democrats following the Trayvon Martin shooting in February 2012. However, the GOP has affirmed that self-defense is a God-given right, and therefore “stand your ground” laws are part of the platform.
Moreover, with the Aurora shooting, the Sikh Temple shooting, and others that took place this year, there have been renewed calls for bans on magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. But the GOP platform recognizes that any such ban is but a first step to greater bans, and therefore views the call for limitations on magazine capacity as an attempt “to restrict our Second Amendment rights.”
The 2008 platform made it clear that gun control “only penalizes law abiding citizens.” The 2012 platform goes even further by showing that guns and freedom are inextricably bound together.
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