While campaign for the Democrat nomination to replace Congressman Ryan Zinke, Rob Quist supported a national gun registry; now that he has the nomination he is trying to walk back his earlier comments.
In late January, Quist, a 69 year old banjo player and singer from Creston, told the Bozeman Chronicle, “You register your car to drive, why not register guns.”
Democrat leaders at the national level have supported similar forced gun registration. House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi proposed a similar measure during the early days of the Obama administration in 2009. That measure failed to gain traction in Congress.
Montana Democrats selected Quist as their nominee for the May 25 special election at a contentious convention in Helena on March 5. Quist was selected on the fourth round of voting.
Following a recent campaign kickoff event in Whitefish, Quist attempted to revise his earlier support for gun registration telling the Daily Interlake that his past remarks only referred to “fully-automatic assault rifles.”
According to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, registration of fully-automatic weapons has been required since 1986.
By: Big Sky Headlines staff