McCain tells NRA members they should fear Obama and Clinton

Sen. John McCain moved to mend some political fences today, reaching out to reassure gun rights supporters that he will make a better president than his possible Democratic opponents.

At a stop at the annual meeting of National Rifle Assn. in Louisville, Ky., McCain acknowledged that he had differed with the group on some forms of gun regulation and on campaign financing. But the presumptive GOP presidential nominee insisted that he was a better choice that either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, still battling for the Democratic nod.

“Over the years, I haven’t agreed with the NRA on every issue,” McCain said. But “those disagreements do not detract from my long record of support for the Second Amendment and the work we have done together to protect the rights of gun owners.”

“We have real differences with the Democratic candidates for president,” he said. “They have learned something since 2000. They don’t talk about their plans for gun control. They claim to support hunters and gun owners. But just because they don’t talk about gun control doesn’t mean they won’t support gun control. Let’s be clear. If either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is elected president, the rights of law-abiding gun owners will be at risk.”

Obama, at a televised news conference in Watertown, S.D., responded to a question by saying that he expected the GOP to use gun-related issues in the campaign. He said he supported the individual right to bear arms.

“I do believe that there is nothing inconsistent with also saying that we can institute some common sense gun laws, so that we don’t have kids shot on the streets of cities like Chicago,” Obama said.

He cited background checks and “unscrupulous gun dealers who have peddled them to people who shouldn’t be getting them. Those are laws that I think the majority of Americans believe in.”

Obama said he disagreed with the NRA. “Their basic position is that any law related to gun ownership is a potential camel’s nose under the tent and that if we allow even the smallest concession that somehow guns will be taken away from everybody.

“If you subscribe to that view then you are not going to agree with me. On the other hand, if you are a gun owner here in South Dakota who uses your gun to hunt or to protect your family and does so in a lawful way, then you have nothing to worry about from me.”

michael.muskal@latimes.com