Elections

Jeb: The 10th Amendment Can Trump The 2nd Amendment [VIDEO]

Christian Datoc Senior White House Correspondent
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UPDATE (9:00 pm EST): Allie Brandenburger, Bush’s campaign spokesperson, reached out to TheDC and gave the following statement:

Governor Bush is a strong 2nd amendment advocate and reiterated his view that the federal government should not be passing new gun control laws. He believes in states rights and as Governor of Florida he used the 10th Amendment to expand gun rights with a “Six Pack of Freedom” bill and received an A+ ratings from the NRA.

Presidential candidate Jeb Bush told Stephen Colbert Tuesday that gun control — including but not limited to ramped up mental health background checks — should be left up to the individual states.

COLBERT: If mental health checks are opposed by the NRA, how do you fight back?

BUSH: I think that you do it at the state by state level. This is the greatness of our country that — tell you what. Vermont is a lot different. Vermont is actually the most pro-gun state probably in the country, believe it or not, but New York City is a lot different than rural Florida, and vice versa. Why would you want to impose national gun laws on top of every circumstance of this country. 

COLBERT: Well, the right to have an individual firearm to protect yourself is a national document, in the Constitution, so shouldn’t that also be applied national —

BUSH: No. Not necessarily… There’s a 10th amendment to our country, the Bill of Rights has a 10th amendment that says powers are given to the states to create policy, and the federal government is not the end all and be all. That’s an important value for this country, and its an important federalist system that works quite well.  

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