|
Zanesville
Times Recorder
Republicans
more likely than
Democrats to own firearms
Feb 5, 2013
Written by Paul Singer and Gregory
Korte
Members
of Congress were asked
whether they owned firearms. Here is how they responded, including
support from
pro-gun groups.
WASHINGTON
— Ohio’s congressional
Republicans are much better armed than their Democratic counterparts —
a fact
that helps explain the deep partisan divide as Congress gears up for
its first
major votes on gun control in a decade.
Among
Ohio lawmakers, eight
Republicans said they owned guns, while only two Democrats did,
according to a
USA Today-Gannett Washington Bureau survey. Four lawmakers said they
did not
own a gun, including one Republican. Four others declined to answer.
Overall,
119 Republicans and 46
Democrats declared themselves as gun owners, according to the survey of
all
House and Senate members.
There
is no public record of gun
ownership by members of Congress, and it is not part of the information
lawmakers are required to reveal in their annual financial disclosure
forms. So
USA Today and the Gannett Washington Bureau contacted every
congressional
office to ask: Does the lawmaker own a gun?
The
results show a highly partisan
and regional divide. Only 10 percent of Republicans who responded said
they do
not own a gun, while 66 percent of Democrats said they are not gun
owners.
“I’m
a farmer,” Rep. Bob Gibbs,
R-Lakeville, said when explaining why he owns “a couple” 12-gauge
shotguns.
“You’ve got groundhogs to take care of and other varmints.”
Rep.
Steve Stivers, a colonel in
the Ohio Army National Guard, said he uses his 9 mm pistol for target
practice
on a regular basis.
“I
use it to train, to be ready, if
the military ever calls me up,” said Stivers, R-Columbus. “It’s
important for
me to keep up my readiness in case I ever need to use it, God forbid.”
Sen.
Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said he’s
a long-time hunter whose family has owned guns for generations.
Rep.
Marcy Kaptur, D-Toledo, was
one of only two Democrats in the Buckeye State to say she is a gun
owner. “I
will decline to go into specifics about how many weapons and what kind,
except
to say the Kaptur family has a long history of lawful gun ownership,”
said her
spokesman, Steve Fought.
Michael
Hammond, legislative
counsel of Gun Owners of America, said he’s not surprised about the GOP
tilt of
congressional gun ownership. In Republican districts, he said, a gun
“is a
campaign accoutrement.”
The
gun gap
Some
members were more than willing
to give an inventory their gun lockers. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., owns
three
shotguns, three rifles and two pistols, press secretary Sara Lasure
said. Sen.
Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, owns a dozen, but her favorite is a 20-gauge
Ruger,
communications director Matthew Felling said.
Read
the rest of the article at the Zanesville
Times Recorder
|
