Obama on gun control

Update November 7, 2012:  Mr Obama is going to attempt a UN based gun ban (again).


In the Oct. 16 debate, Obama said three things related to gun rights-

• He will reintroduce the ban on "assault weapons."
• Handguns are a problem, especially "cheap hand guns."
• Americans should be screened for mental health as a condition of gun ownership.

Assault weapons has no precise meaning.  Wikipedia states "Assault weapon is a political term...."

"Cheap hand guns" is another political term. What price is cheap?  If a $300 hand gun is what your grandmother uses to protect her life, does that make it cheap?

Obama stated "automatic weapons kill people in amazing numbers."  Obviously said for the goriness, this is a fairyland remark. The FBI has no reports of criminal use of automatic weapons in the last 14 years.  That is, check the Uniform Crime Reports, and you will find no such reports.  Earlier, Obama  had already contradicted himself when he said, "[criminals are] not using AK-47s. They're using cheap hand guns."  Does Obama just make this stuff up? 

Finally, Obama implied firearms rights are about hunting.  This is a standard "progressive" lie.  We have the right to keep weapons to stop government if the government turns cruel, oppressive or filled with lies.  This includes the right to defend ourselves from petty criminals.

The text of Obama's remarks:

"We're a nation that believes in the Second Amendment, and I believe in the Second Amendment. We've got a long tradition of hunting and sportsmen and people who want to make sure they can protect themselves.

"But there have been too many instances during the course of my presidency, where I've had to comfort families who have lost somebody. Most recently out in Aurora. You know, just a couple of weeks ago, actually, probably about a month, I saw a mother, who I had met at the bedside of her son, who had been shot in that theater.

"And her son had been shot through the head. And we spent some time, and we said a prayer and, remarkably, about two months later, this young man and his mom showed up, and he looked unbelievable, good as new.

"But there were a lot of families who didn't have that good fortune and whose sons or daughters or husbands didn't survive.

"So my belief is that, (A), we have to enforce the laws we've already got, make sure that we're keeping guns out of the hands of criminals, those who are mentally ill. We've done a much better job in terms of background checks, but we've got more to do when it comes to enforcement.

"But I also share your belief that weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters don't belong on our streets. And so what I'm trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced. But part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence. Because frankly, in my home town of Chicago, there's an awful lot of violence and they're not using AK-47s. They're using cheap hand guns.

"And so what can we do to intervene, to make sure that young people have opportunity; that our schools are working; that if there's violence on the streets, that working with faith groups and law enforcement, we can catch it before it gets out of control.

"And so what I want is a -- is a comprehensive strategy. Part of it is seeing if we can get automatic weapons that kill folks in amazing numbers out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill. But part of it is also going deeper and seeing if we can get into these communities and making sure we catch violent impulses before they occur."

Source: ABC News, page 9, partway down the page.

~~~~~~~~