Posted on 04/03/2008 10:57:31 AM PDT by SJackson
Barack Obama is embracing anti-gun policies in the run-up to a Democratic presidential debate scheduled on the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.
“I am not in favor of concealed weapons,” Obama told the Pittsburgh Tribune. “I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations.”
These remarks break from Obama’s previous moderate rhetoric on gun control.
While campaigning in Idaho in February, Obama promised, “I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns.”
Obama elaborated later that month in a political forum sponsored by ABC News and the Politico. He said: “I think it's important for us to recognize that we've got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally. And a lot of law-abiding citizens use it for hunting, for sportsmanship, and for protecting their families. We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal handgun usage. And so I think there is nothing wrong with a community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the streets. And cracking down on the various loopholes that exist in terms of background checks for children, the mentally ill. We can have reasonable, thoughtful gun control measure that I think respects the Second Amendment and people's traditions."
Obama’s tough talk on gun control may be prompted by Philadelphia-based Democratic leaders who are pressuring Clinton and Obama to adopt harder stances on gun control. This issue is expected to come up in ABC News’ Democratic debate on April 16 in Philadelphia. 32 people were shot to death on the campus of Virginia Tech by Seung-Hui Cho April 16, 2007.
Obama’s new hardline liberal position differs from his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and GOP candidate John McCain, who both are for concealed-carry.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said in a statement Obama should apologize and revise his stance. “Barack Obama ignorantly believes that legally-armed Americans are as reckless and irresponsible as the criminals with whom his political sympathies evidently law,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “He has been insisting for months he supports the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, but here he is now campaigning in Pennsylvania, stating essentially he would prefers Americans not exercise that right.”
35. Do you support legislation to ban the manufacture, sale and possession of
a. handguns?
While a complete ban on handguns is not politically practicable, I believe reasonable restrictions on the sale and possession of handguns are necessary to protect the public safety. In the Illinois Senate last year, I supported a package of bills to limit individual Illinoisans to purchasing one handgun a month; require all promoters and sellers at firearms shows to carry a state license; allow civil liability for death or injuries caused by handguns; and require FOID applicants to apply in person. I would support similar efforts at the federal level, including retaining the Brady Law.
b. assault weapons?
Yes.
c. ammunition for handguns and assault weapons?
I would support banning the sale of ammunition for assault weapons and limiting the sale of ammunition for handguns.
36. Do you support legislation
a. mandating background checks of purchasers of weapons at gun shows, through the internet and through print advertisements?
Yes.
b. increasing penalties for illegal resale of weapons?
Yes.
37. a. Should funding for the Legal Services Corporation be increased?
Yes.
b. What restrictions, if any, should Congress enact or repeal regarding the scope of federally funded legal services for the poor?
Congress should repeal restrictions that, among other things, prevent or discourage advocates for the poor from initiating class actions and other types of lawsuits that give meaningful redress for widespread grievances.
I also have no problem with open carry.
My dead cold fingers, Obama.
He just lost the election................
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
This may cost him the union vote. He just touched the third rail.
“While a complete ban on handguns is not politically practicable...”
So, to answer the question - he WOULD try to ban handguns. It just isn’t “politically practicable” [at this time].
Nope. Just line up and be shot like good little sheep.
More criminals would get shot during altercations, is more like it.
And those folks with illegal handguns...are just gonna turn them in too.
Idiot....
Pander Bear!
Do you think that this will be heard though? Most people will never hear his true feelings at all, they might hear his doublespeak during one of the debates with McCain but I don’t think this will be page one in any of the MSM papers or newscasts.
OK, 0’bambi, put your money where your mouth is. How about you tell your SS detail not to carry?
It’s hard to bear arms, if you can’t carry them. Obama is an idiot, an idiot who can’t understand the concept of the 2nd Amendment, private property or freedom.
I guarantee this piece of trash, called a candidate to dupe the masses, has well-armed guards, but of course, not for the little people. The more I see this scum bucket the more I dislike his fraudulent claims of knowing anything. The other side of the bottom-of-the-barrel truly has been penetrated to reach a low-life like B Hussein Obama
Well sure, everybody knows one of the first things criminals do after they obtain an “illegal handgun” is to register for a CCW license.
Why, it’s just common sense that’s what they do.
(If the reader cannot determine the level of sarcasm in that reply, no sarcasm notice I could add here would help.)
Osama Obama is going to lose PA in a landslide now.
THOSE (the gang) were the “innocent” people whom he does not want to see get hurt in “altercations”.
Amazing that all those big, tough Union members vote Democrat.
I was thinking the same thing, though.
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