TheDailyBeast: The Obama Gun Grab Myth

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The “Barack Obama is Gonna Take Your Guns” bogeyman took another hit Monday, as the Supreme Court overturned Chicago’s 28-year ban on handguns, reaffirming the Second Amendment rights of all Americans.

Combined with the Court’s 2008 decision to overturn Washington DC’s handgun ban, the fact that 48 states now have some form of concealed carry permitting, and the current Democratic Congress’ vote to allow guns in federal parks—which was signed into law by President Obama last year—Americans are unexpectedly living through a gun rights renaissance.

But don’t tell that to the fear-mongering-for-fun-and-profit crowd. Facts would screw up their ability to scare people into anti-Obama activism.

The specter of forced seizure of guns has been a constant drumbeat among the Wingnuts since Obama’s election. Glenn Beck told his listeners that Obama “will slowly but surely take away your gun or take away your ability to shoot a gun, carry a gun.” Skip Coryell, founder of this year’s Second Amendment Marches, wrote an article for Human Events titled "Rattling the Second Amendment Saber" in which he asked, "When do you say "Yes, I am willing to rise up and overthrow an oppressive, totalitarian government?…Is it when the government imposes martial law? Is it when the government takes away your firearms?” And Alex Jones went at the issue with his slickly produced one-world-government fright-wing approach, showcased in his “Obama Deception” DVD. The undertow of anxiety is a constant theme.

Not surprisingly, there are signs that all this fear-mongering translated into the real world: gun and ammunition sales are way up, causing shortages in markets across the country.

The deep disconnect between fear and the facts are a sign of the times; with the rise of hyper-partisan media, we have been segregating ourselves into separate political realities. And of course guns aren’t the only subject over which hysteria eclipses truth. Taxes are another good example. The Tea Party might stand for Taxed Enough Already, but the facts show that the federal tax burden this year is the lowest since Harry Truman was in office. Of course, Supreme Court decisions on guns are not Obama's doing--he is presiding over an era of increased gun rights, not driving the change. Nonetheless, as counterintuitive as it might seem, Americans right now live in a country that is taxed less and has fewer restrictions on gun ownership than it did under George W. Bush."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-06-29/supreme-court-ruling-obama-is-not-coming-for-your-guns/

[msongs]

1. black president -> gun sales are way up. NRA. nt

[proteus_lives]

3. Violence at a 30 year low.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

5. I don't think the post you're replying to implies more guns => more violence.

It's saying black president => more guns. Different thing.

[beevul]

Dupe N/T

[beevul]

7. Yeah, I'm sure it had...

Yeah, I'm sure it had nothing at all to do with Mr. Obamas voting record on the subject, as a senator... :eyes:

[benEzra]

21. Speaking as a gun owner, the concern in '08 would have been worse

had Biden been at the top of the ticket, given Biden's prior involvement in efforts to ban the most popular rifles and institute harsh limits on magazine capacities, and his statements on the issue even during the primaries. Obama, on the other hand, has been the one pulling the party back from the gun ban brink, reining in Biden, Holder, and various Third Way types who initially spoke out on the new-bans issue. The DLC'ers did manage to keep the ban idea alive in the 2008 platform, but hopefully that verbage will be taken out of the next iteration.

There were a whole lot of people pointing out prior to the election that Obama probably would not push for a new ban on so-called assault weapons, but people still hedged their bets, just as they did during the Clinton administration in '94.

I am hopeful that if Biden ever does run for POTUS, that he gets informed on the issue. It's not "huntin' gunz" that gun owners are concerned about, since the overwhelming majority of us aren't hunters.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[proteus_lives]

4. Authoritarians hold the paranoid crown,

How heavy is it?

[BrklynLiberal]

6. TheTeabaggers, RWINGNUTS and Militiaguys will NEVER let something like facts interfere with what

they believe. Their reality is based on something inside their own bumpy heads..and has nothing to with what is actually going on out there in the world that the rest of us inhabit.

[TPaine7]

10. The myth is only a myth because the threat was taken seriously.

Obama said he wanted to keep guns out of the cities. DC is a city as is Chicago. After a lot of effort by a lot of people, the Supreme Court overruled his ambition.

Obama said he wanted to ban the most popular semi-automatic rifles in America. Due to a lot of effort by a lot of people, he came to see the POLITICAL error of his ways.

Obama said he opposed concealed carry. Due to a lot of effort by a lot of people, he came to see the POLITICAL downside of attempting such a move.

Obama's statements of support for the Second Amendment were so weak and slippery that I actually felt less sure of his support after them. I have long experience of seeing through politician speak--and being proven right. I have a good BS detector.

Obama's stated beliefs may be in the "bumpy heads" of Teabaggers, RWINGNUTS and Militiaguys, but they are also in the heads of people who actually are informed on the subject of Obama on guns.

[X_Digger]

14. Is this, or is this not President Obama?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-4jqZSEo0Q

[guardian]

8. If one more

Supreme Court Justice had voted differently it would have been a different outcome.

[slackmaster]

9. Not necessarily

It could have been 6-3 in favor of the ruling.

[guardian]

12. Okay, you got me.

I should have been more precise.

[one-eyed fat man]

11. Maybe

Based on what she said a year ago you would have expected a 6-3 vote.

Last year, during the confirmation hearings when asked about the Heller decision, Justice Sotomayor went so far as to point out that "one of my godchildren is a member of the NRA. And I have friends who hunt. I understand the individual right fully that the Supreme Court recognized in Heller." According to Sotomayor, "I understand that how important the right to bear arms is to many, many Americans."

But, as the McDonald decision demonstrates, she didn't understand it to be protected by the Constitution.

[guardian]

13. Confirmation hearings are a joke and pure crap

NONE of the people in confirmation hearings ever tell the truth about what they feel/think. They say what they think the Senators want to hear. Confirmation hearing testimony is probably less reliable than a campaign promise.

[PavePusher]

15. More like Confirmation Theatre. (Summer Stock, at that) n/t

[rusty_rebar]

16. I think Obama has been surprisingly good with regards to guns so far in his presidency. NT

[PavePusher]

19. Insofar as people avoid stepping on a known land mine, yes....

Otherwise, not so much.

[jazzhound]

17. The ignorance of the anti crowd regarding Obama's

record on firearms is one of the most obvious signs of their intellectual laziness --- as an education on the issue involves just a few mouse clicks.

[Lurks Often]

18. Wrong

Congress has not sent any (or any significant) gun legislation to President Obama for his signature, because they know that it will cost them votes and possibly their seats and in regard to the Democrats, possible loss of the majority. If such legislation arrived on his desk, he would undoubtedly sign it.

Anybody who thinks that a liberal Democrat that came out of the Chicago political environment isn't anti-gun is either naive, ignorant or delusional.

[SteveM]

20. This has been dealt with before....

(1) AG Holder called for an "assault weapons ban" last year;
(2) The DNC CONTINUES to call for an AWB (see the web site);
(3) Leading Democrats continue to call for gun-control (Sen. DiFi expressed disappointment over the position of the new SCOTUS nominee with regards the McDonald decision).

"Of course, Supreme Court decisions on guns are not Obama's doing--he is presiding over an era of increased gun rights, not driving the change."

Goodness, what understatement. The Beast should have said Obama was clearly outgunned. To say Obama "presided" over the change was like saying George C. Wallace presided over integration of the University of Alabama since he at least knew to step aside. Wallace did not change his views until the last few years of his life.

The best way to de-mythologize the gun-control issue is to remove the crap language from the PRESENT DNC platform, and to publicly change one's views. Laurence Tribe did so when he admitted in 1999 that the Second did indeed recognize an individual right to bear arms, this after years of being the go-to guy for gun-controllers.