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Thompson's Florida Swing Focuses On Gun Rights

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By WILLIAM MARCH | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 15, 2007

LAKELAND - Fred Thompson's first campaign swing through Florida as a declared presidential candidate brought him to Lakeland Saturday morning for a brief stop at a gun show.

It followed Friday's strong endorsement from gun control opponent Bill Bunting, who's also chairman of the Pasco County Republican Party. Bunting accompanied Thompson on his brief Lakeland stop.

Thompson did not address reporters, and he spent more time admiring babies and signing autographs than looking at firearms.

But he did check out an antique revolver at a stall manned by Marilyn Kennedy of Englewood.

"My husband collects antique guns, and I want someone who will preserve his right to do that," said Kennedy, who secured an autograph from Thompson.

State Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, was on hand. She said she's the first senator to formally back Thompson. U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Bartow, the third ranking Republican in the U.S House, was an early Thompson supporter. He was not able to attend Saturday's event because of a prior engagement, but his top aide, Keith Rupp, attended on his behalf.

"[Putnam] is excited about the curtain being pulled back and letting this machine roll," Rupp said.

Thompson's campaign will soon announce a formal position for Putnam, a campaign official said.

Thompson left the gun show about 11 a.m., with two tour buses in tow. They were heading north for the UF-Tennessee football game. Thompson is a former U.S. senator from Tennessee

On Friday, Thompson spoke at the county party's Reagan Day fundraising dinner to a packed room at Spartan Manor in New Port Richey.

Thompson, just starting out as an announced candidate in the GOP primary, appears likely to find strong support in Pasco County, some local GOP leaders said.

Attorney General Bill McCollum, the Florida chairman for Thompson's competitor, Rudy Giuliani, was planned to be keynote speaker at the dinner for months, said state Committeewoman Shari Kotsch, who planned the dinner. After Thompson finally announced last week he'll be a candidate, though, Bunting and Kotsch, also a gun rights advocate, added Thompson to the agenda.

Both will support Thompson, generally considered the strongest gun rights supporter among the leaders in the Republican field, Bunting said.

'I'm a life member of the NRA' - National Rifle Association - 'but he's an endowment member,' Bunting said of Thompson.

Bunting said he has arranged for Thompson to have exclusive rights to advertise and display campaign materials at gun shows in Florida run by the two companies that sponsor most of the shows, Southern Classic Gun Shows and Suncoast Gun Shows.

At the Friday dinner, Thompson got an endorsement from John DiGaetano of Wesley Chapel, president of a Florida-based gun rights group, the Second Amendment Club of America.

Thompson said during his speech that when he was in the Senate, he 'stood tall for the Second Amendment, when a lot of people wouldn't do that' - a line in his standard stump speech.

When Thompson visited Miami earlier in the day Friday, though, it turned out not to be the best day for his Second Amendment pitch. On Thursday, a Miami-Dade police officer was shot to death while making a traffic stop, and three other officers were wounded, by a man wearing body armor and firing an assault rifle.

Thompson didn't waiver from his stand when asked about the shooting.

'I do not think that abridging Second Amendment rights is the answer to street crime in America,' he told reporters in Miami. 'To disarm law-abiding citizens' won't help, he said.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com.

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