Less than one month ago, Mayors Against Illegal Gun Violence released a television advertisement encouraging Congress to close the 'gun show loophole,' which allows individuals to purchase firearms at gun shows without a criminal background check.
The spot centered on the pledges made, at one point or another, by each remaining presidential candidates to shut the loophole down. "So with all the talk of bipartisanship, why can't they work together now to pass it?" asks New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg.
The answer may be that one of those presidential candidates has distanced himself from his prior advocacy on the issue.
In 2000, Sen. John McCain appeared in a series of television commercials promoting ballot initiatives in Colorado and Oregon that would require people to undergo criminal background checks if they hoped to buy firearms at gun shows. These clips made their way into the recent Mayors Against Illegal Gun Violence commercial. And in the period that followed, the Arizona Republican repeatedly sponsored legislation that pursued such an end.
Recently, however, McCain has walked his advocacy back, declining to cosponsor the very legislation closing the gun show loophole that he once actively championed.
It is, gun control advocates say, a perplexing silence.
After all, McCain came to the issue of closing the gun show loophole in reaction to the shootings at Columbine High School and the terrorist attacks of 9/11. "Clearly," he is quoted as saying in a December 2001 USA Today article, "alleged members of terrorist organizations have been able to secure guns and weapons using the gun show loophole."
And while he voted against the first post-Columbine effort at closing the loophole, he co-sponsored legislation on the issue thereafter. In 2004, McCain attached such a bill as a hostile amendment to a separate piece of legislation introduced by the National Rifle Association. The measure had the votes to pass the Senate before the NRA pulled its support and a flood of lawmakers backed away.
After that run-in -- and as he began to organize his presidential campaign -- McCain lost interest. The same bill was brought up in 2005, but he declined to include his name as a cosponsor.
"I think it is fair to say he backed off his advocacy," said Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way, who helped McCain draft his earlier legislation. "[H]e relished taking on the NRA, this was a point of personal pride for him. And then there was talk about doing it again and reintroducing the bill -- but when we didn't see a path to passage, [Sen. Frank] Lautenberg decided to do it instead. The fact that [McCain] didn't put his name on the bill, he probably should have."
As time went on, other political factors came into play, namely the 2008 Republican primary. When gun-policy was thrust back into the legislative spotlight following the Virginia Tech massacre last spring, McCain continued to remain on the sidelines.
In April 2007, the Senator said it was "not necessary at all" to limit the size of ammunition clips sold to the public -- one of the key concerns for post-Virginia Tech advocates. That same month, the Chicago Tribune reported that the school shooting would not sway him away from backing the rights of gun owners. And during the Conservative Political Action Committee conference this past February, McCain embraced an opposition to waiting periods.
"I have defended my position on protecting our Second Amendment rights, including my votes against waiting periods, bans on the so-called "assault weapons," and illegitimate lawsuits targeting gun manufacturers."
Kessler notes that it is not, necessarily contradictory, to take the positions McCain has on the campaign trail and still be for closing the gun show loophole. And indeed, when asked by the Huffington Post to explain where the Senator stood on the issue, spokesman Brian Rogers pointed to the following statement on the campaign's website:
"At a time when some were trying to shut down gun shows in the name of fighting crime, John McCain tried to preserve gun shows by standardizing sales procedures. Federal law requires licensed firearm sellers at gun shows to do an instant criminal background check on purchasers while private firearm sellers at gun shows do not have to conduct such a check. John McCain introduced legislation that would require an instant criminal background check for all sales at gun shows and believes that such checks must be conducted quickly to ensure that unnecessary delays do not effectively block transactions."
But for former McCain colleagues in the gun show loophole fight, it is hard not to notice how quiet on the issue he has actually become.
"It is not really expedient for his political career right now," said Kessler. "It is a confluence of interests coming together... If a vote on the measure came up today, I'm not sure he would actually show up."