Santorum hails NRA’s fight for individual freedom

Friday, April 13, 2012

By CHARLES BABINGTON

Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum says no group has done a better job of promoting American freedom than the National Rifle Association.

Santorum told the NRA convention Friday in St. Louis that the gun-rights group has been a vital beacon for individual liberties.

He praised GOP presidential front-runner Mitt Romney and said conservatives must back Republican candidates even if they find them imperfect.

Santorum said it is essential to defeat President Barack Obama in November. If re-elected, Santorum said Obama may be able to turn the Supreme Court in a more liberal direction should any of the longest-serving justices retire.

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spelchek 1 year, 1 month ago

Progressives have no tolerance for the Constitution, 2nd amendment being one, Article 1 Section 8 being another.

tonto_goldberg 1 year, 1 month ago

Conservatives like to skip over the last sentence of Article 1, Section 8 which says "all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof..." Pretty expansive language, there.

Progressives, and the United States Supreme Court, don't believe in a strict interpretation of the "enumerated powers" doctrine. Most of us believe that issue was settled back in the 1830's.

TraceyT 1 year, 1 month ago

I'm not sure if I'm a Conservative, but the last sentence only states that Congress can makes laws to carry out the duties they were assigned in the rest of Article 1, section 8, and to assist with the limited duties assigned to the President in Article 2, and the limited duties assigned to the Judicial Branch in Article 3. These three very limited lists of power are the only legal powers that "the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof" can exercise, because all federal departments and officers inherit their power from one of those three branches. None of those appointed duties have anything to do with anything an individual does within the borders of one state (barring specific listed offenses like treason and insurrection). Interstate commerce is the only thing that Congress is allowed to regulate. The problem with that is when goverment officials want to claim that your choice to not buy something from another state is in fact interstate commerce. If I make heroin for my own use, the federal government has no right to say anything about it (it's not even commerce, let alone interstate commerce), unless they can redefine the simple words in Article 1 and get away with it. Words are given a somewhat permanent definition to allow effective communication, although definitions of some words can shift over time. Redefining a word after it has been used, with the intent of confusing or hindering communication by distoring the original meaning when it was used is no less than an attempt to manipulate society, and when people attempt to do this they will occasionally make statements like "it depends on what the definition of 'is' is".

Note: I'm not encouraging use of heroin, I'm just pointing out that it is the states' job to deal with it, not the federal government's job.

asb 1 year, 1 month ago

That is not true. There are anti-gun folk out there, and when they're political, they're usually leftish, but most on the left respect gun rights and our nation's reliance on the 2nd amendment. There are lots of gun nuts out there too, and their politics are usually anywhere from conservative to complete wacko. The NRA only has one job, selling guns. Their "Freedom" fight is marketing. Santorum is wrong, many individuals and groups have done much more than the NRA to promote freedom in America. Few have done more than the NRA to promote false enemies of the second amendment and to fan the extremist patriot feelings of the far Right.