During the January 10 airing of Face the Nation, Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie admitted running against “attempts to permit conceal-and-carry laws in New Jersey.”
Host John Dickerson pointed out that Christie also supported an “assault weapons” ban in 2009.
This is news because Christie has admitted supporting an “assaulted weapons” ban, but it appeared that support was in during the period of 1993-1995. In fact, Christie told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he used to be pro-gun control until he “changed his mind.”
Politico reported the exchange with Hannity, in which Christie said:
Well listen, in 1995, Sean, I was 32 years old and I’ve changed my mind. And the biggest reason that I changed my mind was my seven years as a federal prosecutor. What I learned in those seven years was that we were spending much too much time talking about gun laws against law-abiding citizens and not nearly enough time talking about enforcing the gun laws strongly against criminals.
But on January 10, John Dickerson showed that Christie’s support for gun control is far more recent than 1995–Dickerson quoted Christie campaign supporting gun control in 2009.
Christie responded to Dickerson’s revelation by saying:
You learn about these things over time. And I’ve learn about this over time. In New Jersey I have grown up in a culture…of very, very vigorous anti-gun laws. As I have traveled the country as Republican Governors Association chairman and traveled as a Governor, I’ve learned a great deal about this. And my actions as Governor have been exactly where I think they need to be. When these things involve public safety, I’m for public safety. But if they are laws that are just going to make legislators and governors feel better, they shouldn’t be put into place and infringe Second Amendment rights.
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
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