Charlie Gibson just noted that both Sens. Clinton and Obama have been pretty pro-gun control in the past, and yet they’ve backed off that on the campaign trail, saying they support the 2nd Amendment, etc.

Clinton says she understands what cities need: information for tracking illegal guns, new assault weapons ban, more support for police. She’s listing all the restrictions that she has supported in the past and hoping people see them as reasonable. At the same time she says, we can’t ignore the Amendment No. 2.

“I believe that we can balance what I think is the right equation. I respect the 2nd Amendment. But I also believe that most lawful gun owners … also want to be sure that we keep those guns out of the wrong hands. As president I will work to try to bridge this divide.”

Obama now addressing D.C.’s ban on handguns and some others. Obama says the consitution confers an individual right (as opposed to right tied to militia service; he’s flexing his constitutional law muscle quietly) to bear arms. But local governments, he says, can constrain that right (example: we have a right to property, but cities can making zoning rules). He talks about tradition and the tradition of hunting and the tradition gun ownership. “But you also have the reality of what’s happening here in Philadelphia and what’s happening in Chicago.”

“I have never favored an all out ban on handguns. What I think we can provide are common sense approaches to illegal guns ending up on the streets. We have to get beyond the politics of this issue and figure out what is working.”

Back to Clinton, on the subject of D.C.: a total ban with no exceptions under any circumstances might be unconstitutional. She is throwing in a lot of qualifiers there. But she says she doesn’t know the facts on D.C.

Then she goes on a state’s right’s riff. She says she supported New York’s restrictions as good for New York. “What might work in New York City certainly isn’t going to work in Montana.” (Will that be replayed later as a city-slicker saying something about the good rural folk out in Big Sky Country?)