McCain Shows NRA Strong Pro-Gun Side

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McCain accused Obama and Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of hiding their true stripes by avoiding any mention of gun-control measures they support as they campaign. "If either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama is elected president, the rights of law-abiding gun owners will be at risk," McCain told NRA members.

But McCain himself is viewed with alarm by plenty of gun owners and many in the gun-rights leadership. In 2001, he championed efforts in several states to close the gun-show loophole that allows firearms to be purchased at the shows without background checks.

His starring appearance in several television ads on behalf of gun-control referendums, and his later sponsorship of a federal gun-show bill, caused the NRA to label him an enemy of gun rights and liberal groups to proclaim him one of their favorite lawmakers.

"John McCain was our number one hero," said Jim Kessler, a founder of Americans for Gun Safety, a gun-control group for which McCain filmed a movie trailer and for which his campaign manager, Rick Davis, was a consultant.

"They were bitter enemies, the NRA and John McCain," Kessler said. "They spent month after month just going after him."

In 2001, upset about the effect McCain's campaign finance reform would have on the NRA's ability to influence elections, former NRA head Wayne LaPierre, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal, asked NRA members: "Is it possible that John McCain thinks you have too much freedom?"

This week, however, LaPierre seemed to have put the matter behind him. "I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree on those."

Campaigning in West Virginia before the NRA speech, McCain said that he wholeheartedly supports the NRA and its goals and that he is looking forward to again receiving the group's endorsement.

"We've had a disagreement on the gun-show loophole. That is a specific disagreement on an aspect that I believe was a way for people who shouldn't acquire weapons or guns to do so," he said.

In his speech, McCain vowed to protect the rights of gun owners by appointing judges and Supreme Court justices who would respect the wishes of the nation's founders.