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Vice President Joe Biden has a commandment for pastors, rabbis and nuns: He wants them to tell their flocks that enacting gun control is the moral thing to do. But another vote may have to wait until Congress wraps up work on an immigration overhaul. Biden met for two-and-a-half hours Monday with more than a dozen leaders from various faith communities – Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh, to name a few. Both Biden and the faith leaders encouraged each other not to give up on what has been an arduous and thus far fruitless effort by Biden and President Barack...

The Senate's proposed gun-control bill crashed and burned earlier this month, and Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled that he was going to put the issue on the political shelf where it would presumably start to gather dust — but that might not be the case after all. Senator Manchin and Toomey revealed last week that they're going to keep looking for ways to strengthen Senate support for the measures, and Machin confirmed that he's optimistc that he can fix their mistakes from the last go-around and introduce a background check-centric, cleaner version of the bill:CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO...

President Obama, according to his own telling, would have passed a gun control bill supported by nearly every American, but the National Rifle Association drove in trucks full of money and lobbyists, buying off senators. Obama's story isn't true. The NRA doesn't work like the lobbies Obama is coziest with. And the NRA also wasn't the tip of the spear in the gun-rights fight this month. Here is the way things really went down: The gun-rights resistance on Capitol Hill began in late March with two first-term Tea Party senators declaring they would filibuster consideration of the gun-control bill. Sens....

She told us so? The debacle on background checks fully exposed the president’s flawed leadership, which his Democratic rival warned voters about back in 2008. If you ever need a refresher course in just how disconnected Barack Obama is from America’s mainstream culture of guns, consider this scathing indictment: “You know, Americans who believe in the Second Amendment believe it’s a matter of constitutional right ... I disagree with Senator Obama’s assertion that people in this country ‘cling to guns’ ... People of all walks of life hunt—and they enjoy doing so because it’s an important part of their life,...

They can’t pass gun control via Congress so they’re going the dictator route. This is not going to go over well. On a conference call with “stakeholders,” Biden told gun control advocates that the fight is not over and that eventual action on gun control will come. Press were not invited to the conference call; a participant provided BuzzFeed with access. “Look I know you’re going to say that I’m just being an optimist and I’m trying to put a good face on this. But you know I’ve been around here a long time and we’ve already done, because of...

Yesterday was a big news day. One of the biggest in years. The nation had been hit by a terrorist attack just two days before, reports were that a suspect had been identified and might even be close to being arrested. The mysterious assassinations of two Texas prosecutors had been broken open and the country was just learning that it was neither white supremacists nor Mexican drug lords who had targeted our legal system. Letters containing a lethal poison had been mailed to both the Congress and the White House. For the first time since the season of terrorism commenced...

President Obama was visibly angry during his press conference yesterday, voicing disappointment with the Senate for failing to pass an amendment requiring universal background checks for gun sales. The president, however, insisted it was still possible to “bring about meaningful changes that reduce gun violence” outside of Congress. “Even without Congress, my administration will keep doing everything it can to protect more of our communities,” Obama insisted. “We’re going to address the barriers that prevent states from participating in the existing background check system. We’re going to give law enforcement more information about lost and stolen guns so it can...

President Obama has been calling Republican and Democratic senators on Tuesday to discuss the gun-control vote, a White House official said. Obama is expected to reach out to between half a dozen to a dozen senators in all, the official said. The White House would not provide the call list, so it's unclear whether Obama is reaching out to Republican senators who have promised to filibuster gun-control legislation. As part of the lobbying effort, Obama is telling senators that gun-control legislation "deserves a vote," the official said. The president is expected to reiterate his message in recent days that Congress...

Either (a) Obama is referring to a different shooting, which I doubt, (b) I missed a major update to the Newtown story, (c) he knows something we don't, or (d) he has roughly the same mastery of gun fundamentals as magazine expert Diana DeGette. From last night's DCCC fundraiser in San Francisco: Now, over the next couple of months, weÂ’ve got a couple of issues: gun control. (Applause.) I just came from Denver, where the issue of gun violence is something that has haunted families for way too long, and it is possible for us to create common-sense gun safety...

At a fundraiser last night in San Francisco, President Barack Obama said that the Newtown killer gunned down 20 children using a "fully automatic weapon." From the official transcript, provided by the White House: Now, over the next couple of months, we’ve got a couple of issues: gun control. (Applause.) I just came from Denver, where the issue of gun violence is something that has haunted families for way too long, and it is possible for us to create common-sense gun safety measures that respect the traditions of gun ownership in this country and hunters and sportsmen, but also make...

KRAUTHAMMER: The president is out there; it’s rather puzzling. He’s tilting at windmills and he will lose. The windmill is going to win on this one. He is not going to get anything of importance. He might eke out a weak compromise on background checks. But you have to ask yourself why is he doing this? You hear Pfeiffer implying that we’re going to blame the Republicans if this doesn't pass, as if that will be political success for them. Yes, the national polls show a shift, at least a temporary shift, after Newtown. But that’s not where elections are...

Obama in Colorado: " ..... when Michelle came back from doing some campaigning out in rural Iowa. And we were sitting at dinner, and she had been to like a big county, a lot of driving out there, a lot of farmland. And she said, if I was living out in a farm in Iowa, I'd probably want a gun, too. ....."

President Obama will travel to the state next week to push for gun control, the second trip he has made to Connecticut since the Newtown shootings. The White House announced the event in a statement Tuesday: "On Monday, April 8, President Obama will travel to the University of Hartford where he will continue asking the American people to join him in calling on Congress to pass common-sense measures to reduce gun violence. Additional details on the President's event at the University of Hartford will be forthcoming." The President is expected to be joined by Newtown families at the event. As...

DENVER (CBS4)- President Barack Obama is traveling to Colorado next week to discuss the state’s new gun control laws with law enforcement and community leaders. The president met with relatives of victims of gun violence in Washington, DC on Thursday. He’s pushing for legislation that would expand background checks nationwide in hopes of avoiding another tragedy like what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary in December of last year. “We need everybody to remember how we felt 100 days ago and make sure what we said at that time isn’t just a bunch of platitudes,” said Obama. The event was part...

It was, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada ebulliently proclaimed, a “happy day for me” as he stood with Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association, in 2010 at a new shooting range in Las Vegas made possible by federal money secured by Mr. Reid. “People who criticize this probably would criticize baseball,” Mr. Reid said before firing off a few rounds. These days, Mr. Reid, the Senate majority leader, is far more likely to meet with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, an outspoken advocate of stricter gun control, than with Mr. LaPierre as he prepares to...

It’s about to get real people. There are those in law enforcement who are standing for the law of the land and then there are the radical Socialists in Washington who seek to trample the law under their feet. Since a number of brave men in this country have come forward to state that as the supreme law enforcement officers in their counties they will not enforce new gun control laws, the Obama White House has demanded that they must. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) has the support of at least 381 sheriffs and the cooperation of...

JOE BIDEN: And lastly, but not least, the Assault Weapons ban and the limitation on the size of magazines, let me say this as clearly as I can: this is just the beginning. We believe that weapons of war have no place on our streets. That’s the message that the retired admirals and generals have spoken to us about. The comment one of them used was: if you want to learn how to use a semi-automatic weapon, join the United States military, but these are weapons of war, and we believe there’s no rational reason why someone would need a...

Bureaucrats from 150 nations are ramping up efforts to impose gun control through international pact. Here in the United States, the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty has become the vehicle to drive an agenda that is deeply controversial because once a treaty is ratified by the Senate, it becomes the supreme law of the land. Last week, Secretary of State John F. Kerry — no friend of the Second Amendment — announced support for the treaty, which calls for international regulations on firearms, including personal firearms as well as military weapons. During the presidential campaign, President Obama was evasive about...

In a gun-grabbing scheme as desperate as it is wrong, President Obama is threatening to bypass Congress and go it alone via Executive Orders if legislators don't move fast. The sudden rush to Executive Orders comes as Obama sees the writing on the wall: the American people do not want more gun control, and the Republican Congress is listening to the people.

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan quartet of senators, including two National Rifle Association members and two with "F" ratings from the potent firearms lobby, are quietly trying to find a compromise on expanding the requirement for gun-sale background checks. A deal, given a good chance by several participants and lobbyists, could add formidable political momentum to one of the key elements of President Barack Obama's gun control plan. Currently, background checks are required only for sales by the nation's 55,000 federally licensed gun dealers, but not for gun show, person-to-person sales or other private transactions.

The National Rifle Association will assert that President Barack Obama’s attempt to enact new gun control laws will result in the “confiscation” of people’s firearms in a new web video scheduled to run in five states and the District of Columbia. The video will go online around the time Obama begins delivering his State of the Union address, in which he is expected to mention his effort to reduce gun violence through legislative means. NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told CNN that the organization based its warning on what he said is a Justice Department document, “Summary of Select Firearm Violence...

President Obama will travel to Minnesota on Monday with hopes of building support in the law enforcement community for his set of gun control initiatives. However, public safety officials outside urban pockets are increasingly hostile toward a sweeping set of proposals they say would do nothing to curtail violence. As the details of Obama's gun plan emerged -- a ban on assault weapons, a prohibition on high-capacity ammunition clips and universal background checks -- urban law enforcement officials were among the most vocal proponents of the blueprint. However, over time, police officials in suburban and rural areas have expressed misgivings,...

I'm sure we've all seen by now the "photo op" of President Obama shooting skeet. If he's shooting skeet then I'm Daffy Duck. Skeet [clay disks of bright colors] are thrown by a machine from two towers erected to the right and left of the shooter. (There are other set ups like ones used for "sporting clays" but that isn't represented in the White House photo release.) Usually, the skeet is thrown about ten or more feet above the ground. The shooters are arranged in a semi-circle at various stations around the semi-circle. The "group" of shooters lines up at...

I'm sure we've all seen by now the "photo op" of President Obama shooting skeet. If he's shooting skeet then I'm Daffy Duck. Now, what's wrong with the president's picture? First the weapon is nearly level to the ground. Can't be skeet shooting, nor likely trap either. Second, it is evident that the President has never shot a shotgun before as his stance is leaning slightly backward. Look at the position of his torso to his legs. Skeet or trap shooters never do this. They lean slightly forward like a boxer in the ring. Third, he doesn't know or was never...

THIS JUST IN: The Big White has released a picture purporting to show President Obama "skeet shooting" at Camp David ...Read the Rest Here>>>

The White House has released a photo of President Obama skeet shooting at Camp David from August, 2012, attempting to quell a controversy that arose when Obama said that he sympathized with hunters because he frequently went shooting himself. “Attn skeet birthers. Make our day - let the photoshop conspiracies begin!,” former White House advisor David Plouffe tweeted in a message containing a link to a photo of Obama brandishing a shot gun and wearing ear muffs and sun glasses. Conservative critics questioned the veracity of the Obama’s claims of skeet shooting because he had never been seen publicly shooting...

In the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting we all knew that an impending gun debate would be a hard fought battle. Just after this week’s hearing on Capitol Hill, a new Forbes study finds that the NRA is winning the influence battle over gun control. In the new study performed by Forbes Insights, an independent and unbiased organization, they found that the “NRA and the pro-gun rights voices are winning the influence battle and will continue to be strong and more influential if the pro gun control voice remains fragmented”. The data was compiled from the week before...

Barack Obama recently told the New Republic that he understands the concerns of gun owners, because “in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time.� As critics chortled over both the notion that skeet shooting is what concerns gun owners and the idea that Obama shoots clay pigeons “all the time,� the White House has finally released a photo to back up its claim … and only one photo, dated August 12, 2012: That led to a barrage of questions from journalists about whether the White House could offer proof that the president had gone shooting....

I don't normally post on the weekend, but the White House released a photo of Obama skeet shooting. Apparently, we're not allowed to spoof it, which I guess is their opening salvo on the first amendment now...anyway, I can't resist.I'm sure the gun experts will have something to say about my "technique", but I think the point comes across...

Well, let's see...

This morning, the White House released a photo of President Obama shooting a gun: http://www.weeklystandard.com/sites/all/files/images/8436110735_5ec05750a2_b.preview.jpg "President Barack Obama shoots clay targets on the range at Camp David, Md., Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)," the caption reads.

News of President Obama's apparently long-secret fondness for skeet shooting came as a surprise to those who say they have witnessed the president's "awkward" attempts at pinging the (clay) pigeons. ~~SNIP~~ "The only time he shot skeet was for President's Cup," said the source, referring to a shooting competition tradition involving the presidential Marine guards. "I was there. He stayed for about five minutes, and couldn't leave fast enough."Skeet shooting "is very hard," said the source. "Especially for someone not used to guns ... He couldn't have been more uncomfortable."

President Obama recently told the New Republic magazine, "Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time." Today, after some suggested the president's claim might not be true, the New Republic tweeted a picture supposedly proving that Obama has gone skeet shooting:

Per Fox, Obama knows he will not get gun control through Congress so he is preparing to order federal agencies to require private citizens to obey his gun control measures as a prerequisite for the public to do business with the government.

'We are serious about limiting access to assault weapons and magazine clips [sic]. Joe and my cabinet members are on board with the necessity of confronting this issue to ensure no events like Sandy Hook happen again and the gun violence like in Chicago is addressed. This involves enforcement of existing laws. It involves addressing access to guns in big cities. I know this is not a shy group and I am very grateful to them, a representative group of communities across the country. Congress will be making decisions on what groups like this decide.' (all quickly paraphrased) Ends. takes...

Writer and film director David Mamet has weighed in on the current gun control push, and what he sees as government overreach couched in an "assault weapons" ban that is actually "a political appeal to the ignorant." Mamet describes it as a "hoax"– a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, because "assault weapons" are used in few crimes, and the very designation "assault weapon" is based on a gun's cosmetics--i.e., does it look menacing? Going after such guns makes some people feel safer because they have slowly, and perhaps unknowingly, traded their independence for a "government knows best" mentality....

There were fairly clear policy rules once upon a time. If you wanted to pass gun control, you would get up, use a bunch of kids as props and put in a Senate bill that would get the job done. That’s still being done, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. Obama Inc. is consolidating control over the economy which puts its minions in the position of being able to make policy through economic pressure and policy. Under Socialism, you don’t have to pass a law, you just have to use your economic control to make the companies enforce...

In comments made Friday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said the National Rifle Association (NRA) is a "fringe group" that is "very extreme." Moreover, according to Schumer, the NRA doesn't "represent average gun [owners]." Schumer says that during the 1990s the NRA used their lobbying power to fill background checks with loopholes, thus leading to a situation where "40 percent of all guns sold in American have no [background] check." You'll recall that Obama also used this "40 percent" claim when pushing for more gun control earlier in the week. This claim goes back to a 2011 study by Mayor Michael...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-Ky.) campaign is calling for supporters to back his opposition to expanded gun controls, warning in a new email that "they're coming for your guns." "You and I are literally surrounded. The gun-grabbers in the Senate are about to launch an all-out-assault on the Second Amendment. On your rights. On your freedom," the email opens. It goes on to warn that "our freedom is under direct assault ... from those who want to shred our Constitution."

The Miami gun-show line stretched 200 people long. Many blamed President Barack Obama. This is what the president’s gun-control talk has wrought: long waits to get into gun shows, higher firearm and ammunition prices and more paranoia. The word “Obama” was frequently mumbled, muttered, hissed, cursed at Saturday’s Southern Classic Gun and Knife Show. “Obama” was a catch-all word, a gun-rights shibboleth of sorts, a no-longer-shocking swear, a conversation starter. To Calvin Hudson, a Miami Gardens resident bargain-hunting at the Miami-Dade fairgrounds firearms bazaar, the Obama-blaming was a sign people were being fooled into paying more in a firearms market...

As has been widely reported, an NRA representative recently met with an Obama administration-directed firearm task force led by longtime gun control supporter Vice-President Joe Biden. It came as no surprise that the meeting had little to do with keeping our children safe and much to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment. But you may be surprised to know one of the revelations that came out of the meeting. Jim Baker, NRA-ILA's Director of Federal Affairs, represented NRA at the meeting. As detailed in a recent Daily Caller article, Mr. Baker was given five minutes to present...

Sneaky executive order bankrolls anti-Second Amendment propaganda. The directives on gun violence President Obama signed Wednesday were meant to seem harmless. A closer look at the president’s first memorandum reveals it to be a sneaky assault on congressional authority in order to fund gun-control propaganda. Getting this done has been on the White House “to do” list for some time. In his 2013 budget submission, Mr. Obama deleted the prohibition that has been in effect since 1995 on the use of federal funds to advocate or promote gun control.

After reviewing President Obama‘s 23 “executive actions” signed into law yesterday, Joe Scarborough said Thursday morning that his Republican Party had better proceed with caution, seeing as how he believes the policy proposals have the “overwhelming” support of the American people. The president’s plan included universal background checks on gun purchases, which Scarborough said has the support of at least “85% of Americans.” The president’s call for a

Of all the gun-control measures touted by President Obama on Wednesday, the one that got top billing was a dramatic tightening of background checks on gun purchasers. Obama himself said the need was urgent because “40 percent of all gun purchases are conducted without a background check.� But before we make the most sweeping changes in federal firearms law since the 1960s, shouldn’t we at least examine the validity of that figure? It’s about as dubious as they come.The administration is focusing on background checks in an attempt to drive a wedge between staunch anti-gun-control absolutists such as the...

Gun control is back. President Obama on Wednesday unveiled a series of feel-good measures designed to play on the emotions of Americans saddened by the horrific shooting of 20 students at Sandy Hook Elementary School last month. Almost nothing he proposes to do would make anyone safer. Surrounding himself with children, Mr. Obama said, “This will be difficult. There will be pundits and politicians and special-interest lobbyists publicly warning of a tyrannical, all-out assault on liberty — not because that’s true, but because they want to gin up fear or higher ratings or revenue for themselves.” The president said that...

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. 2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system. 3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system. 4. Direct the Attorney General to review categories of individuals prohibited from having a gun to make sure dangerous people are not slipping through the cracks. 5. Propose rulemaking to give law enforcement the ability to run a full...

President Barack Obama announces 23 executive actions on gun control, separately asks Congress to pass gun-control laws Obama asks Congress to pass laws that would: require background checks on all gun sales; restore a ban on "military-style assault weapons"; ban gun magazines with capacities of more than 10 rounds; and toughen penalties on people who sell guns to those who can't have them Below are the latest updates as they come to us. Also, you can read our full story. [Updated at 12:43 p.m. ET] Senate Democratic leadership sources tell CNN that passing any new legislation will be extremely difficult...

The following is a list, provided by the White House, of executive actions President Obama plans to take to address gun violence. 1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system. 2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

For those of us following The Won's address to his subjects.

A quarter of a million people have signed up for new NRA memberships ahead of the White House Task Force's findings. A day before President Barack Obama is scheduled to release Vice President Joe Biden's recommendations to curb gun violence in the United States, the National Rifle Association told U.S. News and World Report that they have seen membership grow by 250,000 in the month since the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut. Politico reported membership had grown by more than 100,000 five days ago. The NRA says that when Politico reported the story, membership was close to...