Constitutional Law

Obama statement on gun control

Hot local news here.

Brady Campaign must be dosing up on antidepressants again. His proposals are essentially ... make background checks better and faster. Topped with:

"Now, like the majority of Americans, I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. And the courts have settled that as the law of the land. In this country, we have a strong tradition of gun ownership that's handed from generation to generation. Hunting and shooting are part of our national heritage. And, in fact, my administration has not curtailed the rights of gun owners - it has expanded them, including allowing people to carry their guns in national parks and wildlife refuges."

The most comfort they can take is a careful hint at requiring background checks on private sales -- but even there you have to read very, very, carefully to see the hint. Or try this:

"Some will say that anything short of the most sweeping anti-gun legislation is a capitulation to the gun lobby. Others will predictably cast any discussion as the opening salvo in a wild-eyed scheme to take away everybody's guns."

I wouldn't take any of this as genuine, but I doubt Brady Campaign had this result in mind when it endorsed the Obama/Biden ticket!

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on March 13, 2011 (boomark / email).