TAMPA, Fla. –- Tennessee Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn told The Daily Caller on Tuesday at the Republican National Convention that rumors the GOP had assembled the “most pro-gun” platform ever simply aren’t true.
“I guess success has a thousand fathers, and I bet people are just following things [we’re doing in Washington],” said Blackburn, who co-chairs the GOP platform committee with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and North Dakota Sen. John Hoeven. “I think most of that language has already been there in previous platforms.”
The Washington Examiner’s Paul Bedard reported earlier this week that the GOP “will approve the most pro-gun platform ever” on Tuesday.
“Besides giving the National Rifle Association and other Second Amendment groups victories on their issues, the platform is also a slap at several Obama initiatives, including the Fast & Furious scandal, his administration’s consideration of a ban on high-capacity bullet magazines and talk of reviving the assault weapons ban and negotiations in the United Nations over a treaty to regulate small arms sales,” Bedard wrote. “Leading the changes from prior GOP platforms was a sentence backing the use of deadly force for self-defense.”
“Also added was language opposing restrictions on ammo purchases and supporting the right of those with state-issued concealed carry permits to cross state lines,” Bedard added.
But Blackburn told TheDC the platform, which convention delegates will officially vote on Tuesday afternoon, is “a good solid visionary document that is going to lay the forward for a lot of our candidates at the local, state and federal level.”
“What you will see when the platform is opened this afternoon — you’ll see in the preamble how we lay out how we are the ‘Great Opportunity Party,’” Blackburn told TheDC. “That is what GOP stands for.”
Blackburn added that language in the platform focuses on “auditing the Fed — very similar to what the House did.” This reference concerns the Federal Reserve, a favorite cause of some conservatives — especially devotees of Texas Rep. Ron Paul.
Blackburn also said other platform language considers “revisit[ing] the idea of a metallic commission for monetary supply, like Reagan did.” The return to a gold standard-based monetary policy is also a cause célèbre of Paul supporters.
An “addition of the Constitution section” in the platform, Blackburn also said, deals with “repealing Obamacare and replacing it with patient-centered health care.”
