|
?:reviewBody
|
-
When Democrat Robert C. Soles, Jr. announced at the end of 2009 that he would not be seeking re-election to his office representing the 8th district in the North Carolina Senate, he stepped down as the longest-serving legislator in that state, having served in the North Carolina House of Representatives from 1969 to 1976 and from 1977 onwards in the Senate. Soles' decision not to run for re-election again may have been influenced by an August 2009 incident in which Soles shot 22-year-old Kyle Blackburn in the leg, claiming that he had fired in self-defense after Blackburn and another young man trespassed on his property and attempted to kick in his door. In February 2010, Soles pled guilty to a misdemeanor assault with a deadly weapon charge: However, commentaries on the shooting (like the one reproduced above) which portrayed Senator Soles as a hypocritical, virulently anti-gun legislator who has made a career of being against gun ownership for the general public are not supported by the evidence. According to Project VoteSmart, the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund (NRA-PVF), the NRA political action committee that ranks political candidates based on voting records, public statements and their responses to NRA-PVF questionnaires, had assigned the following grades to Senator Soles over the previous decade: o 1998 — Bo 2000 — B+o 2002 — B+o 2004 — Ao 2006 — Ao 2008 — A As well, Grass Roots North Carolina (GRNC), an organization dedicated to preserving individual rights, particularly your right to keep and bear arms said of the criticisms of Senator Soles:
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}