Paul Helmke is convinced that he still can call himself a Republican and a gun-control advocate.

It’s getting harder.

As the presidential primary unfolds with GOP candidates competing hard for the gun vote, Helmke said he’s witnessing a disappearance of Republican leaders willing to advocate what he calls “common sense” gun laws.

“Republicans used to realize there were things you could do that don’t impinge on Second Amendment rights that might make us safer,” he said.

“Now, it seems all Republican candidates either go with the simplistic ‘I’m a strong supporter of the Second Amendment,’ or they’re pushing for more guns in more places.

“One means nothing, and the other just makes us less safe.”

Helmke, a three-term mayor of Fort Wayne, has been booed and worse — his Wikipedia profile gets routinely smeared — for such statements. Still, he carries on.

Recently, he was headed to New York to debate Fox News columnist John Lott, author of “More Guns, Less Crime.”

The event was hosted by the Junto club in Manhattan, which traces its roots to 1727 when founding father Benjamin Franklin brought together — according to the club — “intelligent people to discuss intellectual issues in a respectful manner.”

That sounds like role that Helmke hoped to play when he served as CEO of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

After 12 years running Fort Wayne’s city government, from 1988 to 2000, Helmke said he was asked to join the group by its namesake, James Brady, who as White House press secretary survived a shot to the head in an assassination attempt on his boss, President Ronald Reagan.

For Helmke, who’d served as president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, gun control was a law-and-order issue that meant getting illegal firearms off the streets.

The son of a county prosecutor, he’d presided over his beloved hometown during a crack-cocaine epidemic that brought a record rise in gun crimes including homicides.

Helmke said his politics were viewed as an asset in the Brady job. The chairman the group’s directors, a Democrat, told him he was picked “to help broaden the coalition of Americans leading the fight to reduce gun violence.”

At the time, Helmke said, Republicans valued gun control, too, as a means to fight crime.

“For some reason, they don’t anymore,” he said.

By the time he stepped down in 2011 for a teaching job at Indiana University, Helmke said he was worn out and discouraged.

He still talks about improved background checks and mental health service, as well as crackdowns on straw purchases of guns. He remains convinced, citing polls, that most Americans see gun violence as a crisis that must be addressed.

But Helmke has other duties now, heading IU’s Center for Civic Leaders. And Republicans are reluctant to engage in tough conversations about guns, because they’re wary of blowback from deep-pocketed gun-rights groups.

The state’s capital, he said, is an embarrassing symbol.

Indianapolis is seeing record homicide rates — most all committed with firearms. Yet, to even suggest that the U.S. Supreme Court has left open the door for government to do something about controlling guns would be seen as heretical.

“If you’re not saying the right code words, you’re shouted out,” he said.

Helmke jokes that he’s reluctant to use political labels anymore. “I don’t call myself anything right other than professor,” he said.

But he’s not ready to give up pushing the party faithful away from what he calls “far-right extremism” and toward compromise on gun rights.

“I still think we are going to see progress on the issue someday,” he said. “But it’s slow and frustrating.”

Maureen Hayden is statehouse bureau chief for CNHI newspapers. Send comments to [email protected].