Taking Obama at his Word on Gun Rights

American Thinker ^ | December 21, 2008 | David Jeffers

[neverdem]

To the great chagrin of gun shop owners, ammo suppliers, and those nefarious gun show peddlers, there is no longer a need for Americans to stock up on weapons and ammunition.  What has been an incredible boon for the weapons market, the fear of citizens losing the right to bear arms is unfounded.  The President-elect has spoken.

Knock off the snickering I am serious.  President-elect Obama at a press conference December 7, 2008 assured folks that he isn't taking away their guns.  It was somewhat notable that he did not mention their Bibles but since he is a Christian and the Bible was not a subject of the discussion we Bible-thumpers should have nothing to fear either.

Some may marvel at my calmness at the President-elect's assurance but the following statement is the genesis of my serenity:

"I believe in common sense gun safety law, and I believe in the second amendment and so, lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I've said that throughout the campaign. I haven't indicated anything different during the transition, and I think that people can take me at my word."

What could possibly make one question the President-elect's word?  It should be considered old news that Mr. Obama was completely surprised by Reverend Jeremiah Wright's hateful statements from the pulpit of the Trinity United Church of Christ*, of which the President-elect was a member for nearly twenty years.

It would be a stretch to call it a lie by Mr. Obama when back in 2004 he said "Look, I can unequivocally say I will not be running for national office in four years."   How could a man say no to his country when it is obvious that he was the hope we have been waiting for, even though he said we were actually the hope.  We knew what he meant.

As for the petulant political left, how could they be upset at their anointed one for changing from promising to bring an end to the Iraqi War on day one to designing  "a plan for a responsible drawdown," after all the President-elect has begun receiving daily intelligence reports.  One should understand that reality is becoming real to Mr. Obama.

Now it is understandable those counting on fleecing the rich folks are upset at Mr. Obama's deciding to not immediately roll back tax cuts for the rich and instead choosing to allow them to end in 2010, but how many times can a man hear that you do not raise taxes during a recession before he begins believing it?  Ditto for the windfall profit tax on Big Oil!

The biggest misunderstanding of Candidate Obama was his foreign policy stance on meeting with rogue leaders and setting no preconditions for such meetings.  Not only did John McCain jump on this seeming naïveté, but so did Mr. Obama's Democratic primary opponents.  That was such a misunderstanding of what was explained as "a nuanced stance on diplomacy." 

Finally, even the most skeptical of skeptics cannot imagine that Mr. Obama had any knowledge of Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich's despicable auctioning of the President-elect's vacant Senate seat.  Mr. Obama stated clearly on December 9, 2008, "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so we were not, I was not aware of what was happening." And please do not try to parse Mr. Obama's words "so we were not, I was not aware..." as some Freudian slip.  Everyone knows Mr. Obama is not as clearly spoken as when speaking from a teleprompter.

Now before anyone throws up the Rahm Emanuel link understand that it is mere speculation to try to attribute any of Mr. Emanuel's actions to the man for whom Mr. Emanuel acts as chief of staff.  Clearly there are times when one keeps things from one's boss, even if it is something as important as naming the successor to his vacant Senate seat.  

And Mr. Obama's hesitancy to speak of the Emanuel connection is prudent "because...it's an ongoing...investigation."   The President-elect advisably stated "it would be inappropriate for me to, you know, remark on the situation beyond the facts that I know. And that's the fact that I didn't discuss this issue with the governor at all."

All the above listed reasons for caution are easily swept away by simply listening to the President-elect.  Mr. Obama believes in common-sense gun safety laws, and while his stance on gun control is unclear, who can argue with common sense? 

And besides, the President-elect believes "that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms," even though he also believes that "just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can't constrain the exercise of that right."

Okay, that is a little confusing, but he has been saying the same thing about gun control throughout his campaign and transition and I think I can take him at his word.

After all, he told me I could.

David Jeffers is author of Understanding Evangelicals: A Guide to Jesusland and a Cum Laude graduate from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary with a M.A in Theological Studies. He is the proprietor of the blog Salt and Light.

*corrected, thanks to an alert reader.

[KoRn]

/mark

[randomhero97]

Just keep buying.

[mylife]

Maybe he will end the war and there will be cheap surplus for all!

[smokingfrog]

Keep buying. The more that are out there, the more difficult it will be to confiscate them.

[KarlInOhio]

Let's toss this statement into the parse-inator.

so, lawful gun owners have nothing to fear.

He gave no definition of what a legal gun owner is. Since Congress and the President can write laws, it is possible (ignoring the Constitution as I'm sure that Obama, Pelosi and Reid will do) for them to declare any guns illegal. Thus "lawful gun owners will have nothing to fear", but those who own "scaaaaaaaaary guns" will no longer be "lawful gun owners". So, all of you NRA members with arsenals of mega-assault weapons will have something to fear.

[Spktyr]

And the more likely that they will be used if they try to ban or tax them out of existence.

[eyedigress]

Obama doesn’t have a clue, or he’s a liar. I pick option B.

[the invisib1e hand]

I’d stock up anyway, just in case.

[Spktyr]

The two are not mutually exclusive. :P

[river rat]

The Dalai-Bama can both allow you to keep your guns and make them worthless at the same time...

Ammo can be made unaffordable or even illegal to own..
The 2nd Amendment says NOTHING about outlawing or restricting ammunition....

There is even talk of make all unserialized ammo, INCLUDING Harry Gunowner’s hand loaded ammo illegal to own after a date in the near future...

Refuse to dispose of your “illegal ammo” and you become a felon..
Felons are not permitted to own firearms...

BINGO, the magic negro has disarmed the honest citizen, while the thugs remain armed....

Still think CWII is unthinkable and impossible?

[AmericanGirlRising]

Anyone who actually reads this article knows the author put a great big /SARC at the end of it.

[JCG]

Not to worry. We'll all be issued guns when we join the CNSF.

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a Civilian National Security Force that's JUST AS POWERFUL, JUST AS STRONG, just as well-funded." -- Barack Obama, July 2, 2008 [Emphasis added]

----

Send treats to the troops...
Great because you did it!
www.AnySoldier.com

[Who is John Galt?]

Taking Obama at his Word on Gun Rights

How stupid is that? M-O-R-O-N!!! Even that @ss-sucker Clinton claimed to be an NRA supporter, before he got elected to the White House. Remember the so-called 'Assault Weapons' ban, delivered to law-abiding Americans by the D@mocrat (Peloosi-Reed) Party only a few years ago? Get a freaking life!

And FWIW, IMHO, Obama makes the 'Arkansas Rapist' look like a conservative...

[Jeff Gordon]

We took him at word when he said he would sit down with McCain and discuss the public financing of their campaigns. He lied. Obama is a sneaky little bitch who is not to be trusted.

[neverdem]

Still think CWII is unthinkable and impossible?

Where did I write that?

[river rat]

That question was addressed to anyone in particular - but to everyone.

[neverdem]

The author gave you a number of examples where Obama couldn’t be trusted. This is satire.

[El Gato]

Okay, that is a little confusing, but he has been saying the same thing about gun control throughout his campaign and transition and I think I can take him at his word.

Which "word" are we supposed to take him at?

From The Office of the President Elect (whatever that is), change.gov (just search for "Gun Violence". :

Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.

Most likely in a new and improved version, such as HR 1022 from the 110th Congress.

That's a PDF file, text is Here I hope, Thomas can be a little hinky at times.

[neverdem]

Thanks for the links.