Posted on 03/03/2008 8:13:49 AM PST by neverdem
[Barack Obama will have a big problem attracting the blue-collar Democrat voters he needs to win the presidency - they like guns and he wants to take them away.]
As she clawed for survival against Barack Obama in Wisconsin’s Democratic primary this past weekend, Hillary Clinton lamely asserted her Second Amendment bona fides over that of her rival by claiming that she once shot a duck in Arkansas.
As pathetic a pander as that tale was, it did serve to point out one gaping weakness in the armor of the Illinois senator, a man who must rely on blue-collar white voters if he hopes to prevail first in the Democratic primaries, and later in the general election.
The weakness? Barack Obama’s utter disdain of firearms (especially handguns) and a refusal to recognize the rights of law-abiding Americans to own the most common and relied-upon types of firearms.
In his answers to the 1998 Illinois State Legislative National Political Awareness Test, Obama said he favored a ban on “the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.”
By definition, this would include all pistols ever made, from .22 target pistols used in the Olympics to rarely-fired pistols kept in nightstands and sock drawers for the defense of families, and every pistol in between. Obama’s strident stand would also ban all semi-automatic rifles and shotguns, whatever their previously legal purpose.
In 1999, Obama proposed to make it a felony for the gun owner if a firearm stolen from his residence and used in a crime was not “securely stored” — effectively negating the homeowner’s right to self-defense.
That same year, Obama bravely voted “present” on a law that would require teens 15 and older to be tried as adults for firing weapons on or near school grounds. Obama also proposed the idea of banning businesses that sell firearms from operating within five miles of a park or school — restrictions that would treat gun shops worse than “adult” businesses trafficking in pornography.
From 1998-2001, Obama sat on the board of directors for the Joyce Foundation, a left-wing group which today funds grants to anti-gun organizations such as the Violence Policy Center (which advocates total handgun prohibition, reinstatement of the Clinton-era “assault weapons” ban, and the ban of other firearms), the Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence (which favors the registration of all handguns, seeks to overturn Ohio’s “concealed carry” law, ban standard capacity magazines, and ban economical handguns along with many semi-automatic firearms based upon their appearance), and Handgun Free America (which advocates a complete ban on civilian handgun ownership).
All of these organizations seek to disarm law-abiding Americans. This is the idea of “change” that they share with Barack Obama.
On the federal stage, Obama’s brief U.S. Senate career has already seen him vote against a bill (S.397) to protect the firearms industry from those who seek to sue manufacturers, distributors, and importers for the criminal misuse of firearms by criminals, an idea akin to suing car manufacturers for damages caused by drunk drivers.
Tellingly, Obama’s presidential campaign has sought to hide his history of trying to disarm law-abiding Americans.
Buried deep in the “Issues” section of Obama’s web site under “Additional Issues” is a PDF document that can only be described as an attempt to talk around Obama’s real position on firearm ownership. In a section where the campaign claims to “respect” the Second Amendment, the document states:
Millions of hunters own and use guns each year. Millions more participate in a variety of shooting sports such as sporting clays, skeet, target, and trap shooting that may not necessarily involve hunting. As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama understands and believes in the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms. He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting.
Tellingly, Obama’s campaign only addresses the gun rights of hunters and specific shotgun-only shooting sports, and only then in vague terms.
At no point does Obama recognize an individual right to own handguns, or explicitly recognize a right for Americans to use a firearm to defend themselves or others. The site explicitly states that Barack Obama recognizes civilian gun ownership for two just purposes, “hunting and target shooting.”
Hillary Clinton, almost as liberal as Obama on the issue of gun control, could not take advantage of Obama’s radical, out-of-the-mainstream position on firearm ownership because she, too, holds many of the same liberal ideas.
As America moves toward the general election, however, John McCain will have no such problems in discussing Obama’s distrust of his fellow Americans on this issue.
McCain is hardly the poster boy for the National Rifle Association, but McCain claims to strongly support gun rights, stating, “Neither justice nor domestic peace are served by holding the innocent responsible for the acts of the criminal,” a position diametrically opposed to the record of Obama, who favors outright prohibition of many common civilian firearms.
In August 2007, writing at the liberal blog Daily Kos, “BlueDotRedField” shared his lament on Obama’s gun control history coming back to haunt him in the diary entry “Obama gunning to lose in 2008”:
The clear implication of this statement is that Obama believes that Chicago’s violent crimes are to be solved at a national level — since Chicago & IL already have VERY tough gun control laws that have not stopped their crime problems, and to be solved by gun control legislation specifically mentioning the 1994 “Assault Weapons Ban” and blaming Bush for that ban’s lack of renewal.
This statement is very important for those of us lifetime Democrats who not only are more libertarian leaning (especially after 8 years under the imperial presidency of George Bush), are more rural, and who own firearms or have family/friends who do. This statement is also the battle cry that figures on the right have been waiting for from Obama just in case he could actually beat out Hillary.
Common political wisdom has been that gun control legislation, and specifically the AWB, was [the] key handing the Congress to the right in 1994. Additionally, it played a strong part in the election and re-election of George Bush. Only recently, as we have run more centrist and rural understanding Democrats, were we able to retake Congress and have any chance at countering Bush & Co. in any way.
And we stand at a precipice where we can hand it all right back to them.
There seems little chance that Barack Obama can hide his real record and views of gun ownership from the American public though November’s presidential elections.
Once his prohibitive views of firearms ownership become known to America’s millions of gun owners, they may well decide that a gun-grabbing Barack Obama promises the kind of “change” that they can’t believe in.
He kinda reminds me of the Tech bubble...
Of course, Barry & Michelle Obama will be protected by the Secret Service for the rest of their lives, so they have no need for personal protection. If, miraculously, Obama isn’t elected president, he can afford private bodyguards (or maybe the Nation of Islam will provide some, gratis).
On another topic:
I just had a thought: All males born after December 31, 1959 by law have to register for Selective Service (aka the draft). Do we know if Senator Barack Obama registered? He was born August 4th of 1961. If not, why not?
https://www.sss.gov/Default.htm
Dems, both blue collar and white collar, have a common trait. They don’t hear what someone says and judge on that merit. They listen to the sound. If it sounds pretty they like it. Therefore they will continue to support O’bama.
An important point to ponder....
In this day and age of politics and “McCain Feingold”, it’s even more important to send money to groups who have the ability to get “the message” out.
I believe this year that I will be sending my money to either the NRA, or the GOA. The GOP left me a while ago, and I’m putting my money where my mouth is.
I will vote for McCain because of Obama’s policies...
Higher Taxes
Naïve Foreign Policy
Naïve Economic Policy Including Rejecting NAFTA
Pro Abortion Policies Including Support for Partial-Birth Abortions
Expanded Gay Rights Including Support for Same-Sex Marriages and Gays in the Military
Increased Gun Control Policies and Laws Including Banning Handguns and All Semi-Automatics
Reduced Support for Israel
Open Borders and Amnesty for Illegal Aliens
Socialized Health Care
More Spending on Social Programs for Democrat Party Supporters
Conversion of Social Security to an Income Redistribution Program
Liberal Judges Interpreting Laws IAW Their Political/Social Views
THE most liberal member of the Senate.
Does anyone really have to ask before knowing his real stance on just about any issue?
The dems who gained offices in Congress after the 2006 elections do so at the danger of becoming unemployed. Independents are registered in many states where they are more than a quarter of the electorate. IIRC, in some states they are over forty percent.
She just didn't mention she was aiming at Bill...
“In 1999, Obama proposed to make it a felony for the gun owner if a firearm stolen from his residence and used in a crime “
I’ve been looking for the references to support this statement, anybody got one? I find a newspaper article from Chicago Defender December 13, 1999, but no legislative history, and Chicago Defender archives from that period are not on line.
Anybody got links? TIA.
Independents are smarter than Democrats and the Rank and File Republicans. I used to be a Republican but Alabama requires no party affiliation.
Hussein Obama’s fellow Crook County Democrat is a big-time anti-gunner.
“Cook County Commissioner Larry Suffredin, has a long history of anti-gun activity, including serving as a board member of the rabidly anti-gun Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence since 1981. “
http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=3456
It's a long way to November and the economy may turn and the war may be about done by then.
Obama is soooo Liberal that even moderate Liberals wonder what he’s all about. The hard-core Libs love the guy.
McCain is all for a "Saturday Night Special" ban and "closing the gun show loophole" that would also criminalize private Face-to-face gun sales.
Shades of "stupid" on both sides there...
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