The One Debate We Won't Hear: Gun Control

Obama, Romney want to avoid this hot potato: Gail Collins
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 20, 2012 1:55 PM CDT
One Debate Obama and Romney Will Never Have
In this Oct. 16, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney exchange views during the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY.   (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

Benghazi? Check. Unemployment? Check. Health care? Well, of course. Yet despite the 43 multiple shootings in America over the last year, Mitt Romney and President Obama simply aren't debating gun control in the 2012 election, writes Gail Collins at the New York Times. She gives "a cheer" for Nina Gonzalez, who raised the issue at the town-hall presidential debate, but no cheer for Obama or Romney, who mostly ducked the question.

The reasons are simple: Election lore holds that the Democrats lost Congress (1994) and the White House (2000) for passing an assault weapons ban, and Romney once signed such a ban as Massachusetts governor—a fact he would rather not address. Obama did argue for getting automatic weapons away from criminals and the mentally ill, but "automatic weapons, like machine guns, are already heavily regulated," writes Collins. "Although, in a different world, we would be discussing why they’re in the country at all." Click for her full column. (More gun control stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X