http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20130205/NEWS02/302050063/Carper-Carney-among-gun-owners-backing-bansCarper, Carney among gun owners backing bansWritten by Nicole Gaudiano News Journal Washington Bureau
Feb. 04 delawareonline.com
WASHINGTON — Sen. Tom Carper owns a 16-gauge shotgun. Rep. John Carney owns a Remington 11-87
shotgun.
The Delaware lawmakers, both Democrats, are gun owners who support banning military-style assault weapons and
high-capacity ammunition magazines. The pair also favor background checks for all gun purchases.
They are among 46 Democratic and 119 Republican members of Congress who own firearms, according to a USA
TODAY/Gannett Washington Bureau survey.
“My dad was a hunter.” Carper said. “My guess is he would say, ‘If you’re going to shoot a deer or shoot a squirrel,
what do you need? You probably don’t need what we call an assault weapon.’ He’s a big believer in Second
Amendment rights and so am I. But he’s also a big believer in using some common sense.”
Carney said assault rifles such as the one used in the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in
Newtown, Conn., “belong in the military, not in the hands of people who have either ill intent or mental health
issues.”
There is no public record of gun ownership by the 535 members comprising Congress. As lawmakers debate gun
control following the Newtown shooting, USA TODAY and the Gannett Washington Bureau contacted every
congressional office to ask: Does the lawmaker own a gun?
Of the 217 House and Senate members who declined or did not return requests to respond, 138 are Republicans.
Only 10 percent of Republicans who responded said they do not own a gun, compared with 66 percent of Democrats.
Only 12 lawmakers from the Northeast said they own firearms, while 77 from Southern states do.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., declined to say whether he owns a gun. Like Carper and Carney, he has co-sponsored
legislation to ban high-capacity ammunition magazines and require universal background checks for gun sales.
But Coons hasn’t signed onto a proposal to ban assault weapons, as Carper and Carney have.
The Delaware lawmakers say legislation to require background checks for all gun purchases has the broadest support
and is likely to pass Congress.
Carper said that’s also reflected in calls, emails and letters to his office from constituents. Most callers said they
opposed a proposal to ban assault weapons but expressed support for universal background checks.
Gun ownership is a long-standing family tradition for Carper. One of his ancestors, Joseph Carper, developed a
firearm known as the “Carper rifle” 150 years ago in West Virginia. His late father was a hunter and gun collector.
Carper doesn’t use his shotgun, which his grandfather gave him. But he spent his childhood hunting and fishing with
his father and grandfather. Possum, rabbit, squirrel and wild boar made up the family’s Carpers’ Thanksgiving Day
dinner, he recalled.
“My mother would say, ‘Why can’t we be like a regular family and eat a turkey?’ ” he said.
Carney, originally from Claymont, said he developed an interest in shooting sporting clays and turkey hunting later
in life, after spending more time downstate as an elected official.
He won a double-barreled shotgun at a wild-game dinner in Leipsic, during the early 2000s and traded it in for his
Remington, a semi-automatic. He uses it on a turkey hunt almost every year.
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Carney said there was a big difference between his shotgun and the semi-automatic shotgun he would like to ban.
His gun doesn’t have military characteristics — as defined for shotguns in legislation he is co-sponsoring — such as
a pistol grip, a grenade launcher or a fixed magazine that can hold more than five rounds.
“It’s a danger to law enforcement, and in my view, not necessary for people to protect themselves in their homes,” he
said. “It’s certainly not a hunting weapon.”
USA Today reporters Paul Singer and Gregory Korte contributed to this story.
