Former Pro-Gun Republican Lawmaker Gets Gun Control Group Endorsement

By Tom Knighton

For the most part, gun control tends to be a partisan issue. However, I’ve also spoken about how there are such things as pro-gun Democrats and offered that there are such things as anti-gun Republicans. At least in theory.

However, in New Jersey, that anti-gun Republican doesn’t seem to be as theoretical as some might like to believe.

Six years ago, Rep. Leonard Lance proudly boasted of his gun-rights pedigree, reminding voters that he scored a “100 percent voting record” from the National Rifle Association.

But on Friday, Lance, a Hunterdon County Republican, found himself heralded by one of the biggest names on the other side of the gun debate as a “problem solving representative.”

The Courage to Fight Gun Violence, a political action committee co-founded by Gabby Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman who was shot and seriously wounded in 2012, bestowed its blessing on Lance, startling other gun-safety groups and Democratic grass-roots activists who have turned Lance’s once-reliably safe Republican 7th District seat into a “toss-up” this November.

To his foes and critics, Lance’s staunch pro-Second Amendment advocacy was one of his biggest and most unambiguous vulnerabilities. Lance co-sponsored the “Protecting the Second Amendment Act of 2015” and had backed bills that …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms