NEWS CONFERENCE 877

shacks, marching through mud, traveling by jet all over the country
and making statements. I think they should admit what they are.
That's what I'm saying.

(The Rockefeller Candidacy)

Q. Governor, getting back to politics, do you feel wistful when you
see how well your old candidate Governor Rockefeller is doing in the
polls?

A. No, I don't feel wistful. I'm a good friend of Mr. Rockefeller's
and I had a nice in-depth conversation with him in Tulsa. We're
not hostile to each other in any fashion. I've simply made a judgment
for reasons that I've previously explained and he understands. More-
over, with respect to polls, the situation in this country is so volatile
at the moment that a poll taken a month ago really doesn't mean a
whole lot. And there may be three or four changes between now and
the convention, and maybe six or seven between now and the election.
So I'm calling my analysis on the basis of personal conviction and a
feeling that the general tempo and the tenor of thought in this country
is against this permissive wave, is against the oversimplifications that
I've mentioned, the misconstructions, the verbiage.

(Gun Control)

Let me give you an example on gun control. I've been sort of cut
up a little bit about gun control, yet I was one of the people who ad-
vocated the gun control law in Baltimore County before we had a
State law, and actually, the law that was finally adopted by the State.
Now gun control is not something you are either for or against. There
are different types of controls. I'm for a law that would require a
waiting period of at least seven days, a fingerprinting by the applicant
who wants to purchase a gun, a check through the FBI fingerprint
files to make sure he doesn't come under categories of people who
shouldn't have a gun. I'm even for the fact that this application
should be extended to transfers of guns between private individuals
as well as dealers. I'm not for a registration law, because I don't
believe it means anything. I don't think that a person of the type
we're trying to protect against is going to come in and say, "I want
to register my gun. " I also think it will stimulate a black market in
guns. I'm not for the regulation of rifles and shotguns except between
states in the manner of the Safe Streets bill that was signed yesterday.
I fully endorse all other provisions of that bill. And yet, my position
of having a qualified and what I consider to be a moderate, sensible
position on guns has been quoted as both being that I'm for a tight