Jeb Bush is 1 of only 3 Republican candidates who don't own a gun

Guns seized by the New York Police Department in August 2013

(Image credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images)

published 8 September 2015

Mike Huckabee owns several assault rifles, Donald Trump is packing a handgun, and Jeb Bush — well, Jeb Bush goes empty-handed. That's unusual for a GOP candidate; The Telegraph reports that of the 17 Republicans running for president, only Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina join Jeb Bush in the ranks of the unarmed.

Fiorina, at the very least, has an excuse: "My husband is the gun owner in our house," she has previously said, citing six guns in her household — though none belong to her personally. Christie, however, has a decidedly less rosy history with gun owners: He earned a C grade from the NRA for butting heads with the gun lobby.

Bush, who has an A+ rating from the NRA, "has the strongest record of defending the Second Amendment in the entire presidential field," according to a spokeswoman. That being said, some gun rights activists expressed their suspicions to The Telegraph: "That he doesn't even own a gun for his own protection strikes me as somewhat disconnected from the reality that many Americans face," said Larry Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.

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