2008 Backup ‘Wedge Issue’: Guns

The prospect of a Giuliani nomination has led some on the Religious Right to threaten to bolt the GOP over his supposed ideological unfaithfulness on the longstanding wedge issues of abortion and gays. Now that the Supreme Court has announced it will decide the constitutionality of D.C.’s gun control laws, some on the Right think they may have a backup. Human Events editor Jed Babbin writes:

The Heller appeal will be argued next spring and unless something very odd happens, it will be decided before the election. … If the Republicans seize this opportunity, they can make a “kitchen table” issue into a “wedge issue” in 2008: one that will decide the minds of voters. …

Clinton never did anything about gun control as a senator.  What would she do as president?  Does she believe that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to keep and bear arms, or does she favor confiscative laws such as the District of Columbia law the Supreme Court will rule on in the Heller case?

We know the answer. But it’s up to the Republican candidates to flush her out of the tall weeds. This is an important issue to a great majority of Americans across the map, in Blue States, not just Red ones.  It could be the wedge issue that decides the 2008 election.