McCain hits Obama in speech to NRA

Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), looking to shore up support with the once-hostile National Rifle Association (NRA), used his speech to the group’s national convention to blast Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).

{mosads}Seizing on what has come to be known as Obama’s “bitterness” comments, McCain on Friday said the Second Amendment “isn’t some archaic custom that matters only to rural Americans who find solace in firearms out of frustration with their economic circumstances.”

In his prepared remarks, McCain also hit Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), though to a noticeably lesser degree.

McCain said Democrats will dress up “in camouflage and pose with guns to demonstrate they care about hunters, even though few gun owners fall for such obvious political theater.”

McCain had some fence-mending to do with the group, which he said has had some “high-profile disagreements” with the senator in the past. McCain’s standing with the NRA was hurt by his support for closing the so-called gun show loophole and his role in championing campaign finance reform.

The senator addressed both issues in his speech, standing firm on his positions.

“Over the years, I haven’t agreed with the NRA on every issue,” McCain acknowledged.

On the gun show loophole, McCain said he believes “an accurate, fair and instant background check at gun shows is a reasonable requirement.”

McCain said he supported campaign finance reform “because I strongly believed our system of financing campaigns was influencing elected officials to put the interests of ‘soft money’ donors ahead of the public interest.

“It is neither my purpose nor the purpose of the legislation to prevent gun owners or any other group of citizens from making their voices heard.”

The NRA was expecting as many as 70,000 attendees at its national convention in Louisville, Ky., where former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, both former GOP presidential rivals to McCain, also spoke.