Gun Owners: Beware!

While Obama may say that he does not plan to promote gun control, his record paints a different picture. There was some controversy surrounding his stance, while running for Illinois State Senate, where he supported a ban on all handguns.

A Chicago nonprofit, Independent Voters of Illinois, had this question:
35. Do you support state legislation to:
a. ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns? Yes.
b. ban assault weapons? Yes.
c. mandatory waiting periods and background checks? Yes.

Obama's campaign said, "Sen. Obama didn't fill out these state Senate questionnaires--a staffer did--and there are several answers that didn't reflect his views then or now. He may have jotted some notes on the front page of the questionnaire, but some answers didn't reflect his views."

Here is the kicker: It was supposedly Obama's campaign that answered the questions, however, it is still his campaign answering these questions, at what point do you fire your campaign??? If your campaign is filling your questionnaires out incorrectly, why are they still working for you?

Obama also supported a gun ban in Washington D.C., when asked about it he answered:"Because I think we have two conflicting traditions in this country. 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 respect the Second Amendment and people's traditions."

So it all comes back down to his mindset that if you control who gets the guns legally, you will also be able to control who gets guns illegally. This is a fallacy.

Obama supports the Assault Weapon Ban, an assault weapon defined has many meanings, however the one pertaining to this bill defined it as such: "refers to semi-automatic firearms (that is, firearms that, when fired, automatically extract the spent casing and load the next round into the chamber, ready to fire again) that were developed from earlier fully-automatic weapons."

Included in this term would be any rifle, that allowed for detachable magazines (quite common), that included two of the following:

A folding stock
Conspicuous pistol grip
Bayonet mount
Flash suppressor, or a barrel threaded to hold a suppressor
Grenade launcher (can I really buy one of these???)

Semi automatic pistols that allowed for detachable magazines, two or more of following:

Folding or telescoping stock
Pistol grip
a fixed capacity of more than 5 rounds
detachable magazine (are there semi-auto's that dont have this???)

He also supports closing the "Gun Show Loop". This is what people consider the Loop: Under federal law, a firearm dealer must conduct a background check on anyone to whom he sells a gun, regardless of where the sale takes place. A person who is not a dealer may sell a gun from his personal collection without conducting a check.

I bought my first handgun from a gun show, I was 18. I had my green liscense from the state police to buy a handgun. A background check was done on me, and they sold the gun. Just because a gun show, generally speaking, looks like a bunch of "gun-toting rednecks" doesnt mean they dont follow the law.

Lastly, Obama believes in childrens safety when it comes to guns... as most all Americans (and others) do. However the extremity of his "safety" would require gun manufacturers to use biometric shooter-identification systems. Accidental firearm related deaths among children has dropped by 86% since 1975. Today, the chances of a child being killed in a firearm accident are less than one in a million.

Facts gathered from OnTheIssues.org