Obama: Having gun control more than one way?
WASHINGTON _ Barack Obama needs the votes of a whole lot of gun-owners if he expects to win in places like Missouri and Michigan, let alone in Colorado and Virginia.
That’s why his words today and before today are being parsed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s important ruling striking down the D.C. handgun ban and reaffirming the 2nd Amendment right of Americans to keep guns in their homes.
In a statement afterward, Obama sounded as if the ruling were fine with him. He said that he always has believed the 2nd Amendment protects the right to bear arms “but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures. The Supreme Court now has endorsed that view …”
Obama said that as president he would “uphold the constitutional rights of law-abiding gun-owners, hunters, and sportsmen,” and added later: “Today’s decision reinforces that if we act responsibly, we can both protect the constitutional right to bear arms and keep our communities and our children safe.”
Was that double-talk, given what we’ve heard from the Illinois senator before?
John McCain put together a medley of Obama sentiments on gun control, dating back to 1996 when Obama replied on a questionnaire that he supported “Manufacture, Sale And Possession Of Handguns.”
(This sorta thing may be why more politicians are refusing to fill out these pesky questionnaires.)
Here’s where it gets a little muddy.
Late last year, Obama’s campaign said he regarded the D.C. ban as constitutional. But starting in February – when it looked like he’d be the anointed one – Obama began declining to respond to questions about his position on the gun prohibition in the nation’s capital.
He sounded a little testy this afternoon when asked by a TV reporter in Pennsylvania about his inconsistency. Here, according to an ABC News report, is how that interchange went:
Reporter: “In November you mentioned that the DC handgun law was constitutional. Now you’re embracing the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision striking down that law …”
Obama: “That’s not what I said …”
Reporter: “Your aide said that …”
Obama: “I don’t know what my aide said but I’ve been very consistent, I teach constitutional law … What I said was that I believe 2nd Amendment as being an individual right and have said that consistently. I also think that individual right is constrained by the rights of the community to maintain issues with public safety. I don’t think those two principles are contradictory and, in fact, what I’ve been saying consistently is what the Supreme Court essentially said today.”
More Obama: “The DC law may have been struck down but they also affirmed the right for local communities to engage in background checks and other common sense laws that most lawful gun owners would agree with. So I think we can move beyond some of the conflicts on this issue, make sure law abiding gun owners have their rights respected and at the same time make sure we don’t see the kinds of murder and devastation we’ve seen on the streets of some of our cities.”
Guess it depends on what the definition of consistency is.
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What differance does it really make where Obama stand on the gun issue, it won’t change anything, no more than President Bush being pro-life changed the legality of abortion.
Since the right to bear arms is written into our Constitution, that right will never be taken away. It would throw everything else in our Constitution upside down.