Paul Ryan, avid hunter

According to Wired to Hunt:

Now regardless of your political leanings, wouldn’t it be nice to see a hardcore deer hunter in the White House? Not only is Ryan a deer hunter, but he’s a good one too! In fact he has also been a member of the Quality Deer Management Association for 9 years as well. In a New York Times article, when asked about his favorite reading he responded, ” What I look forward to reading the most is Quality Whitetails Journal. It’s from the Quality Deer Management Association and gives insight on deer biology and habitat stewardship. I was planting clover this past weekend at my mom’s place in a rural part of Wisconsin. Yes, deer like to eat clover.” 

According to a recent FOX News article, “Ryan, while not a lock, is seen as a natural complement in a GOP ticket that has Romney as the Harvard-educated financier at top and Ryan, who rose from working-class roots to chairman of the House Budget Committee, as a running mate. Ryan’s deficit-slashing budget proposals have helped make him a rising GOP star.” . . .

Bloomberg Businessweek goes after Paul Ryan on gun control issues here:

It’s that last position that could become a flashpoint in the presidential race. The concealed-carry reciprocity bill Ryan supported passed the House last year before Democrats in the Senate stopped it. The legislation would allow a Virginia resident with a permit to tote her Glock in a belt holster or pocketbook when she goes sightseeing in New York City, despite the city’s more stringent rules on gun possession. 

Concealed-carry reciprocity is a huge priority for the National Rifle Association. You can count on the issue arising in the Oct. 11 vice presidential debate and on the campaign trail in pro-gun swing states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, where many voters in both parties enjoy hunting and admire a guy who can skin and butcher his prey. . . . 

Gun control returns to the 2012 Political Debate

I assume that this is pretty obvious now.  From Fox News:

"I'm sure we'll have more opportunity to talk about this." That was President Obama's response Thursday, ducking a question on whether his administration will beef up gun control laws in the wake of the horrific shooting in Aurora, Colo.
The dodge came just a day after the president sounded off on the issue during a speech before the National Urban League, saying "a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals."
At the same speech, Obama -- who has pushed for an assault weapons ban in the past -- stressed "common sense" solutions could fix the problem in the future. He pointed to stepped-up background checks, which he said "shouldn't be controversial."
Yet the gun control issue remains controversial on the campaign trail this year, as evidenced by the president's apparent indecision on how hard to push. Obama catches criticism from the left for not doing enough, and criticism from the right for suggesting stricter rules are needed. . . .
During the 2008 campaign, Obama openly supported the reinstatement of the federal assault weapons ban. Yet Romney signed such a ban in Massachusetts as well, though it was backed by both the pro- and anti-gun lobby. "There's no question that I support Second Amendment rights," he said in 2007. "But I also support an assault weapon ban." . . .

Obama uses Colorado attack to call for more gun control

Well, at least Obama is more in the open now on this issue.  Who wins the presidency will have a major impact on gun control at least through their appointments to the Supreme Court.  From Fox News:

President Obama has added his voice to the push for stricter gun control in the wake of the massacre last week at a Colorado movie theater.
Obama, speaking Wednesday evening to the National Urban League, affirmed his belief in Americans' right to own guns, but he singled out assault rifles as better suited for the battlefield.
"I believe the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms," Obama said. "But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not on the streets of our cities."
The president, in making the comments, went further than he typically does in suggesting Washington open a new debate on gun control. It's a topic he has handled lightly in the past, but his remarks Wednesday night follow statements from vocal gun control advocates like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg calling for new restrictions.
Republicans, though, have largely said new laws are not the answer. Mitt Romney, pressed on the gun control issue in an NBC News interview during a visit to London, said changing laws won't "make all bad things go away."
"I don't happen to believe that America needs new gun laws. A lot of what this ... young man did was clearly against the law. But the fact that it was against the law did not prevent it from happening," he said. . . .

From the New York Daily News:

Obama says an AK-47 belongs in the hands of soldiers, not criminals. Republican rival Mitt Romney says America doesn't need new gun laws. . . .
While he called hunting and shooting part of the nation's “cherished national heritage,” Obama added that “a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals.”
"I believe the majority of gun owners would agree we should do everything possible to prevent criminals and fugitives from purchasing weapons, and we should check someone's criminal record before they can check out a gun seller," he said during a speech to a supportive audience  National Urban League. "That a mentally unbalanced individual should not be able to get his hands on a gun so easily."
"These steps shouldn't be controversial," Obama added. "They should be common sense." . . . 

The push for new laws has also spread to California and Illinois.

Democratic leaders in three big states have used this summer's Colorado mass shooting to push bills that would crack down on assault weapons and ammunition sales, rekindling a debate that has not gained much traction in Congress or the presidential campaign. 

In Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn proposed that his state enact a strict ban on assault weapons, similar to California's. New York lawmakers have proposed wide-ranging legislation that would limit weapons purchases. 

California Attorney General Kamala Harris and the Democratic state Senate leader back a bill that would make it more difficult and time-consuming to reload assault weapons. The chairmen of public safety committees in California's Assembly and Senate co-authored a bill that would require dealers to report purchases of large quantities of ammunition to law enforcement authorities. . . . 

Obama campaign tries to make him look good on gun issue

Former Ohio governor Ted Strickland has a very pro-self-defense record on gun ownership, but he has a very heavy lift in trying to claim that Obama has a good record on guns. In today's Politico he writes:

I’d put President Barack Obama’s record up against Romney’s any day. The president has made clear that he supports and respects the Second Amendment, and through three years in office he’s done exactly that. The NRA may not always agree with the president, but the American people know where he stands. . . .

If you are interested in seeing some of Obama's record on guns, please click here. See also this piece that I wrote for Fox News available here.

Romney warns that Obama will erode rights of gun owners

The last paragraph below is almost comical. The AP and the media generally keeps on wanting to push the notion that Obama isn't against gun ownership. It is amazing that the AP feels that it is even necessary to ask Romney's campaign for evidence of these anti-gun views. From the AP:

The presidential campaign briefly veered from the emotional Mommy Wars on Friday to the back-burner issue of gun rights, with Mitt Romney telling the National Rifle Association that President Barack Obama is not protecting gun owners - even though the topic has rarely arisen during his time in office. Without offering details, Romney said that Obama would like to erode gun owners' rights. "We need a president who will enforce current laws, not create new ones that only serve to burden lawful gun owners," Romney told thousands of NRA members in St. Louis for their annual convention. "President Obama has not. I will." Obama has said relatively little about firearms, deeply disappointing gun-control groups. Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said the president's record "makes clear the he supports and respects the Second Amendment, and we'll fight back against any attempts to mislead voters.". . . Asked for details to support the claims, Romney's campaign said Obama has appointed judges, including Supreme Court Justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, who have supported moves such as placing temporary limits on importing semiautomatic assault weapons. The campaign said Attorney General Eric Holder has not adequately backed people's rights to own and use firearms. . . .

The rest of the article is about how Obama isn't really supporting gun control.

A transcript of the South Carolina Republican Debate, January 16, 2012, sponsored by Fox News

A transcript of the debate is available here. I don't think that Romney's answers help him very much here. It is my understanding that Romney didn't try to work to make the gun law that he discusses here any better.

WILLIAMS: Gov Romney, Speaker Gingrich says your record of support for gun owners is weak. You signed the nation’s first ban on assault weapons in Massachusetts and steeply increased fees on gun owners in that state, in fact by 400 percent. How can you convince gun owners that you will be an advocate for them as president?

ROMNEY: Well, Juan, in my state we had a piece of legislation that was crafted both by the pro gun lobby and the anti-gun lobby. Massachusetts has some very restrictive rules and the pro gun lobby said, you know what, this legislation is good for us, it includes provisions that we want that allows us, for instance, to crossroads with weapons when we’re hunting that had not been previously allowed.
And so the pro gun folks in our state, the the Gun Owners Action League and others said, look, we would like you to sign this legislation. And the day when we announced our signing, we had both the pro gun owners and anti-bun folks all together on the stage because it worked. We worked together. We found common ground.
My view is that we have the second amendment right to bear arms and in this country my view is also that we should not add new legislation. I know that there are people that think we need new laws, we need to find new ways to restrict gun ownership. And there is in Washington a non-stop effort on the part of some legislators, and I believe the president, to restrict the right of law-abiding American citizens from owning a gun.
I disagree with that. I believe we have in place all the laws we need. We should enforce those laws. I do not believe in new laws restricting gun ownership and gun use. . . .

Mitt Romney on gun control

From the Examiner:

“Deadly assault weapons have no place in Massachusetts,” Romney said, at a bill signing ceremony on July 1 with legislators, sportsmen’s groups and gun safety advocates. “These guns are not made for recreation or self-defense. They are instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people.” . . .