Candidates sized up on gun rights
It has become an all-too-familiar ritual in politics: A horrific shooting — this time at a high school in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed — is followed by a political debate about gun regulations.
Whether things even get that far in the March 13 special election in Pennsylvania’s 18th Congressional District, however, remains to be seen.
The 18th is reputedly an area where firearms are almost sacrosanct, and where Republican candidate Rick Saccone, a state representative from Elizabeth Township, has long been a hero to gun-rights absolutists.
Asked about the shooting at an event on opioids Thursday morning, Mr. Saccone said, “We have to look at people with mental health problems” but not “disarm law-abiding citizens.” As for proposals like enhanced background checks, he said, “I welcome the debate.”
He decried a “culture of violence,” adding, “we have to step up and talk about that.”
His Democratic rival, former prosecutor Conor Lamb, offered a statement in late afternoon that also focused on mental health issues.
“No parent should ever drop their child off at school and be afraid they won’t be alive at the end of the day,” the statement said. “My heart breaks for those families in Florida and, in Congress, I will work to make sure that people with serious mental illnesses do not have access to guns.”
Libertarian candidate Drew Miller similarly said that “it is a mental health issue, not a gun issue,” noting that most shooters were disaffected young men. “If it was a gun issue, I think we’d be seeing more female shooters.”
Mr. Saccone is a staunch supporter of gun rights, having championed the Castle Doctrine legislation that broadens self-defense justifications for deadly force, among other measures. He earned an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association’s political arm. The ranking “is reserved for only those with excellent voting records” on gun rights,” said the NRA, which endorsed him in January.
Supporters of gun regulations were, predictably, less impressed.
“I don’t know what ‘culture of violence’ means,” said Shira Goodman, head of gun control advocacy group CeaseFire PA. “But I know other countries have the same level of mental illness, the same drug problems, the same video games, and they don’t have the same problems with gun violence. We can’t have this conversation without talking about the easy access to guns.”
Mr. Lamb’s statement didn’t weigh in on that topic. His first TV ad, an introductory spot, featured him firing an AR-15 rifle — the style of weapon reportedly used by the shooter in Parkland. “He still likes to shoot,” the narrator says of Mr. Lamb, who served in the Marines.
When asked about gun regulations after becoming his party’s nominee in November, Mr. Lamb said, “I think we need to have the conversation.”
“Do I think he’s been avoiding the issue? Like the plague,” said Kim Stolfer of Firearm Owners Against Crime, a gunrights group.
The group has a long-standing relationship with Mr. Saccone and has endorsed him in the special election. Mr. Lamb did not respond to the group’s questionnaire, but Mr. Stolfer said gun rights are an issue elected officials could ill afford to ignore. “In this district, it’s a crossover thing for a lot of people,” he said, referring to a topic that could induce voters to cast ballots for a candidate in the opposing party.
The Parkland shooting has had at least one immediate effect on the District 18 race: President Donald Trump, who had planned a rally in Ambridge next week that was seen as a boon to Mr. Saccone, is postponing the visit “out of respect and sympathy for the victims and survivors of the high school shooting,” the campaign said.
“President Trump looks forward to visiting with patriotic Americans for a celebratory rally in Pennsylvania at a more appropriate time soon,” it added.