Third Parties' and Candidates' position on peasant control (aka "gun control")

[FirstFreedom]

Thought we could have a thread as a clearinghouse of information for all parties' official positions on second amendment infringements, particularly third parties, in case you're lucky enough in your state to actually have a choice on your ballot. Post what you have; here's a start:

1. David Cobb (Green Party candidate): No info specifically on this issue at www.votecobb.org (that I could find), but his website links (of course) to the Green Party website, and both the Green Party 2000 and Green Party 2004 Official Platforms, while mostly silent on the issue, are very similiar (identical in substance), as the 2004 plank states:

"Thoughtful, carefully considered gun control such as the 'Brady Bill' and the waiting period for record search before gun dealers may sell a gun."

[See http://greens.org/platforms/us/draft-social-justice.doc ]

I think we know what "thoughtful, carefully considered GUN CONTROL" really means. I don't know what "the waiting periord for record search" means, since the current NICS waiting period ranges anywhere from nearly instant (as the name implies) as the stated ideal, up to 72 hours, stated as an unwanted but necessary condition to do a good check in certain circumstances, under the current NICS check. So I don't know if this means they support the current NICS check status quo, or a blanket (and unnecessary) 72 hours for all, or an even longer period. The lack of detail speaks volumes of course, but the "thoughful, carefully considered GUN CONTROL" which notably does not state CRIME or CRIMINAL control, speaks even louder that this is going to be a very anti-freedom party when we get down to brass tacks, if their candidate follows their platform.

 

[FirstFreedom]

2. Reform Party and their new candidate, Ralph Nader. Well, as you know, Mr. Nader is formerly the Green Party's candidate, as well as a strong individualist personality/character, and as such, has a website "semi-platform" separate from that of the Reform Party. I call it a "semi-platform" because it goes into much more detail than Mr. Cobb's website, but alas, it nevertheless is still (apparently) silent on gun infringements, near as I can tell, after looking under the sections "Reform of the Criminal Justice System", "Civil Liberties and Constitutional Rights", and "Peace". Strangely (but not entirely unexpectedly) these sections are utterly silent on the most important constitutional civil liberty; that being the one that secures all the others. This alone is cause for alarm, but it does not smoke out Mr. Nader's TRUE beliefs on the subjects, *IF* he does in fact have any. It's unknown to me at present, but if I were placing Vegas odds, I'd bet Mr. Nader is anti-freedom, given his strong views on other "liberal" issues (that I largely agree with BTW), and therefore his association with all things "liberal" and that mindset. It also does not help him that he is the Green Party's former candidate (in 2000), and you can see above what both the 2004 and more importantly the *2000* platform of the GP says about Nader when he was more or less in charge of it. If you have any more info about pro or anti gun statements Mr. Nader has made in the past, or see anything on his website that mentions gun infringement issues, please speak up and post same. Oh, I must say that Mr. Nader is on record as wanting to strengthen so-called "hate crimes". Though not directly gun-related, I believe this does have a tenous bearing on his mindset of "blame factors other than what was actually done/committed". I believe that if you blame the movitation for a crime, rather than strictly the act itself, it's not a long additional illogical step to starting blaming the instrumentality used in the crime (such as a gun). It also doesn't help that people like Morris Dees think that if you "hate" a big central gov't, then anything you do that is remotely criminal must be linked to your "hatred" and is therefore surely a "hate crime". So, until we have an agreed-upon definition of "hate" or "hate crime", the sheeple get anti-big-federal gov't attitudes all mixed up with so-called hate crimes, and this can in turn injure gun rights, since second amendment supporters are often (rightfully) closely associated with an anti-large-federal-govt' attitude. So, bottom line, this is a strike against Nader in my view, although pretty tenuous if you restrict so-called "hate crimes" as having to do only with crimes motivated by hatred associated with race, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, etc. (which gun owners may genuinely disagree on, and does not impact the mutual goal of protecting gun rights).

[See http://www.votenader.org/issues/index_home.php ]

Important Note: Please, please, please, please don't so much as even MENTION any issues that are not about people control (aka "gun control"), or very very very closely related, not just tangentially related. I want to keep this solely about 2nd amendment rights under potential administrations. I don't want to hear one word about abortion, corvairs, you-name-it, please, as that would just distract from the issue at hand. Thanks a lot!

Now, moving on to the Reform Party's official platform, which is less important since Nader is such a strong character unto himself that came from outside the Reform Party. Nevertheless, it may be helpful to know the Reform Party's position. Hmmm, unfortunately, after searching the "Platform Planks" and "2003 New Planks" sections, I find NOTHING in the Reform party platform that mentions guns in any way, much like Cobb's and Nader's sites. So, we must apparently rely on Nader the individual only for gun rights info on this party - it's fair to assume that Nader's views now represent the party's, where the party's platform is silent, to the extent that his views can be ascertained (see above).

[See http://www.reformparty.org/cgi-bin/platform.cgi ]

Can someone else do the Libertarian guy and party, and the Constitution Party (although we all know that both of these parties are going to be strongly, if not 100%, pro-gun). Also if anyone has a sec, dig up the Republicrats' official planks from their 2 conventions, just for thoroughness's sake.