Rudy Giuliani is in Denver, but he canceled plans for a $1,000. a person fundraiser due to the Virginia Tech shootings. The parking valets were already in place when the cancellation notice was received — just 30 minutes before the start of the event.

On this day of national tragedy, when we lost some of our finest to this senseless act, we stand together as a country to mourn those who lost their lives,” Giuliani’s statement read. “My thoughts and prayers continue to be with the survivors and the many friends, colleagues and family members of those who perished. May God bless them all.”

Is that really the reason?

Colorado House Minority Leader Mike May who was listed on the host committee, balked at attending because he worried about Amendment 41, an ethics measure passed by Colorado voters last November, and being at an event that charged a fee. “I don’t want to be in the middle of an Amendment 41 test,” May said.

But he also worried about Giuliani’s stances on abortion and guns — liabilities that two protestors handing out leaflets outside the Van De Weghe home said were crippling to the former mayor.

May said, in light of the anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School this week and the shooting at Virginia Tech, Giuliani made the right decision to cancel the event. “It would be un seemly to be raising money in light of the horrible tragedy,” May said.

Rudy’s position on gun control been a source of friction with Republicans who support gun rights. Lately, he’s been trying to soften his gun-control image.

Anti-gun control groups, sure to be back on the defensive after yesterday’s massacre at Virginia Tech, say they are having a hard time solidly backing any of the top-tier Republican presidential candidates.

….While in office, the former mayor supported a number of gun-control plans, officially aimed at reducing New York’s high crime rate…..”Rudy Giuliani is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment,” his campaign website says. “When he was Mayor of a city suffering an average of almost 2,000 murders a year, he protected people by getting illegal handguns out of the hands of criminals. As a result, shootings fell by 72 percent, and the murder rate was cut by two-thirds.”

But the website also states, “Rudy understands that what works in New York doesn’t necessarily work in Mississippi or Montana.”

Or, apparently, in Colorado. But he apparently didn’t want to be quoted on his position, whatever it really is, tonight.