Gun Owners of California
Endorses
BILL SIMON
for Governor
By Sam Parades, Executive Director Sacramento 19, 2002
Sometimes in life we have to make tough decisions, and in this critical election year, Gun Owners has done just that by endorsing Republican gubernatorial hopeful BILL SIMON.
The decision to support a great candidate like BILL SIMON in itself isn't hard, but given that fellow candidate Bill Jones has been a solid vote on the gun issue, we had to look deeper and at the bigger picture, without compromising our core Second Amendment principles.
BILL SIMON has a keen understanding of the 2nd Amendment. He does not regard our Constitution as a "living, breathing document", but rather one that has sustained and empowered the citizens of this great nation for over 200 years. He gets the fact that in order to defeat Gray Davis, he must differentiate himself from him, a point which has been lost on Quasi-Republican contender Richard Riordan.
Gray Davis is the single-most anti-gun Governor in California's history, and in order to defeat him, it will take an extraordinary amount of stamina, an even greater amount of money, but more importantly, a firm set of principles, without which Gray Davis will squish any candidate like a fly.
BILL SIMON is a fierce campaigner, has a steely and determined disposition, not to mention a warchest that can rival Fort Knox - on average, he has managed to raise over a million dollars a month.
But, before we take on Davis, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan must be beaten, because despite the "R" after his name, he is even more liberal than Gray Davis on the issue of gun ownership.
Let the record speak for itself:
January 7, 1993 LA Times: …Riordan was asked where he stands on gun control. He said he favored removing guns even if it necessitated a citywide police sweep. He said a police sweep "gets very complicated but if that's the only answer we could come up with, yes, I would be in favor of that, and I would be in favor of much stronger control of gun dealers even to the point of shutting them down."
November 28, 1993 on NBC...Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said regarding the waiting period of the Brady bill just passed by Congress. "It doesn't go far enough," Riordan said. "we should try to as much as we can keep handguns in the hands of police."
1994...Riordan endorsed the Clinton 1994 Crime Act.
1996...then Mayor Riordan did nothing to stop the City Council from banning small affordable handguns, and he supported the City's ban on homebased licensed firearms dealers.
-- continued --