Obama: My wife sees need for rural gun ownership

[Karmadillo]

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2007/11/obama_my_wife_sees_need_for_ru.html

HARLAN, Iowa -- From his days of campaigning in Downstate Illinois, Sen. Barack Obama has been asked plenty of times about his views on gun ownership.

But the Illinois Democrat and presidential candidate added a new wrinkle Saturday night while campaigning in conservative-leaning western Iowa, when he said his Chicago-native wife, Michelle, recently commented that she could see why rural folks might want to own guns.

Here was Obama's discussion of gun ownership and his wife's thoughts during a campaign stop at a middle school:

"We should be able to combine respect for those traditions with our concern for kids who are being shot down. This is a classic example of us just applying some common sense, just being reasonable, right? And reasonable would say that lawful gun owners – I respect the Second Amendment. I think lawful gun owners should be able to hunt, be sportsmen, protect their families.

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[murielm99]

1. He is correct.

This issue trips us up continually.

Gun ownership needs to be a local issue. People who live in rural states or rural areas own guns. They hunt and protect their property from pests. They don't do those things with handguns.

If I lived in town, I could not go outside and shoot off a gun because a coon was getting into my garbage. I would be arrested if I took potshots at an obviously sick skunk that was wandering around in the daylight.

When my husband and I hunt, we supplement our food budget with pheasant or the occasional deer. Many people who live in the country do that. We garden, too. I wish we had time to fish.

I think Obama addressed this issue exactly the way it should be addressed. Good for him.

[ilovesunshine]

2. I agree with him.

[rodeodance]

3. so, we get TWO for ONE with Obama also.

[Bitwit1234]

4. Ge whiz supporting the NRA is OK if Obama does it..Who'd guessed.

[cuke]

5. There isnt a right wing position some Obama supporters won't support

so long as Obama says it's OK. When Obama was still leaving cutting SS benefits and raising the eligibility age for SS "on the table", some Obama supporters supported the right wing ideas. Using tactical nukes on terrorists is a good idea also because Obama said so. Merit pay for teachers is OK because Obama said so.

[wyldwolf]

14. Triangulation!

[Alexander]

17. Gee whiz, bullshit hyperbole is OK if Bitwit1234 does it...Who'd have guessed?

Get a grip on reality already.

[Connie_Corleone]

23. Nitwit1234 comes through again. eom

[karlrschneider]

24. Halfwit weighs in once again

but there's no mass behind the fuzzy crap.

[AtomicKitten]

6. Obama has pragmatism in spades.

While I support strict gun control, Obama has given the reasonable response.

[TankLV]

7. I see a need for gun ownership in the high m ountains to protect from mountain lions

or in the lonely single farm house in the middle of nowhere.

But I do not see the value of gun ownership in modern urban society at all...

Even in the "wild west" of old, the local sheriff made EVERONE check their guns the moment they entered town...

The gun nuts conveniently forget that...

[Vickers]

8. The Constitution does not mention population density as a prerequisite.

I just checked.

[Apollo11]

9. Are you trying to tell me that another 100 million guns will make us safer?

Are you one of these "let's make life easier for killers" types who believes that anyone should be allowed to take a loaded gun to a public place like a park, a playground, a grocery store, main street, without risking arrest and time in jail?

If the Constitution needs updating to protect human life then I say maybe we should think about updating the Constitution.

[Vickers]

11. "If the Constitution needs updating"

I think it needs enforcing.

ALL of it.

FTR, I'm one of those (legally) pistol-packing tree-huggers you hear about and I make no apologies for it.

Adios.

[Apollo11]

31. There's no doubt - the Constitution has a lot of positive parts

But we must not forget that it was written by men, not by God.

It was not carved in stone by our creator and delivered by FedEx or UPS.

I think it is wrong and even foolish to worship the Constitution and all its amendments.

Especially if you are using it as an argument for allowing any individual to purchase and carry all kinds of weapons and ammunition that come onto the market.

Weapons and ammunition that are used to kill innocent people on a daily basis.

But I guess it's possible that I am the one who is nuts?

I have always had a fear of bleeding to death.

Maybe an irrational fear ??? :eyes:

[-..__...]

13. Out of all the "reasonable" gun control "compromises" the grabber suggest...

the idea that there should be one set of rules for rural citizens and another set of rules for urban citizens, is amongst the most
asinine recommendations I have ever heard. The same also applies to the suggestion that it should be left up to the states to decide which gun control laws are best suited for them.

[Radical Activist]

10. Absolutely right.

Democrats alienate a lot of rural voters by imposing gun laws on everyone that are only needed in large cities.

[RamboLiberal]

12. Sorry but I disagree with him on this one

I live in a more urban area and I think I should have the right to own (and carry if licensed) handgun. IMHO urban areas who ban handguns are not protecting anyone. Why do D.C. and Chicago, and cities in California and New Jersey still have high rates of gun crimes when law-abiding citizens are the only ones obeying the gun laws?

Gun rights are not just about rural areas and/or hunting. There are many of us in more urban areas who want to own guns including handguns, rifles, shotguns, etc. for self-defense, target shooting, competition, and not just hunting.

Dems who try to frame guns as a states-rights, or let the urban areas have their own laws, or its strictly rural or hunting issue are missing the full picture.

Actually hunting is a sport on a downward trend, while many competition gun sports are doing nothing but growing. And more people are getting guns for self-defense. CCWs are also increasing.

I'm not a one-issue voter so I would still vote for Obama, but I will fight with my Dem represenatives at national, state and local levels when they try to curtail gun rights with silly laws like the AWB.

[dsc]

18. actually most northern cities, with gun control, have lower crime rates

and lower homicide rates, than similar cities in the South which don't have gun control. The exceptions are Philly and DC both of which are known to have abyssimal homicide units which certainly helps explain their high rates.

[benEzra]

19. You have it backwards...

most northern states have less strict gun control than the southern states (NC's laws are much stricter than Vermont's or Minnesota's, for example), a legacy of the southern Jim Crow laws intended to keep guns out of the hands of nonwhites. Massachusetts is the exception, not the rule; the number of states with Massachusetts-style gun restrictions, you can count on one hand.

For example, to buy a handgun here in NC, you have to go and essentially ask for permission from your (usually white) sheriff, who can deny you based on some pretty subjective criteria (i.e., if he thinks you aren't of "good moral character"). Even with a carry license, NC subjects you to lots of petty restrictions. Contrast that with Vermont, which doesn't even require a license for you to carry a gun for any lawful purpose, concealed or not.

[dsc]

20. I said cities

Vermont isn't urban. Places such as Boston and NYC have incredibly strict gun control laws and much lower rates of murder than places such as Miami and Houston. I live in NC and will admit to not really knowing much about gun laws here, as I don't desire to own a gun. But I must say that both Wake County and my own County had black sheriffs.

[benEzra]

22. Most states do not allow cities to make their own gun laws.

Minneapolis, Minnesota has the same gun laws as anywhere else in the state; the same is true of Boston (AFAIK); the operative laws there are those of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, not the city of Boston. NYC is very unusual in that regard; most cities are governed by state laws, but NYC has an unusual level of autonomy. NC's gun laws are considerably more restrictive than the national average.

NC's pistol-permit law was passed back when ALL North Carolina sheriffs were white. Imagine going to the county jail to get fingerprinted, and to ask your white sheriff for permission to buy a pistol, as a a black man in segregated NC in 1955. It's intimidating enough for me, and I'm a thirtysomething bespectacled, college-educated white guy who knows the law forward and backward, whose parents used to babysit our current sheriff when he was a toddler...I can't imagine what it must be like for minorities who have prior experiences with DWB.

OT--interesting to meet another North Carolinian outside of the NC forum. I'm in the eastern part of the state, not far from the beach; was born here, but lived in Florida for a decade, and moved back a few years ago.

[dsc]

27. Wilson here

but I am going to move to Raleigh at the end of the school year.

[Hieronymus]

15. Gee, Edwards has been severely criticized for allowing his wife to

voice her opinion. Is there a double standard here?

[Alexander]

16. Good. Too many DUers have knee-jerk reactions against the Second Amendment.

These people apparently have such great cognitive problems that they assume any defense of the Second Amendment means the defender is in the pockets of the NRA.

:eyes:

[Renew Deal]

21. Watch the gungeon empty out into GDP

:hi: :pals:

[aikoaiko]

25. Sounds like he is moving in a good direction re: guns.

According to On The Issues, he's made some statements in the past about banning certain guns and that would be a disaster for him to campaign on that.

[boricua79]

26. ahum....

1. Be Sportsmen...not much of a sport to shoot things that can't shoot back
2. hunt...what are we, in the Wilderness, foraging for food? They can drive to local grocery.
3. protect their family....if this is an argument, then it shouldn't make a difference if it's rural or urban. And secondly, limit weapon ownership to one per person.

If some of these reforms can't be enacted, he's just pandering to gun-crazy clientele.

[benEzra]

28. I shoot paper targets...they don't shoot back...

1. Be Sportsmen...not much of a sport to shoot things that can't shoot back.

I shoot paper targets, both recreationally and competitively (IPSC/USPSA pistol and carbine matches). So far, the paper hasn't shot back. I'll certainly let you know if it starts.

BTW, I personally despise the term "sportsman."

2. hunt...what are we, in the Wilderness, foraging for food? They can drive to local grocery.

Scratch the votes of the 16 million people in this country, 1 in 5 gun owners. At least most of us don't hunt...

3. protect their family....if this is an argument, then it shouldn't make a difference if it's rural or urban.

I agree with you there. I live in a suburban area (not rural), and there's no way I would give up the contents of our family's gun safe just because I don't have cows in my yard. And I would be no less safe and responsible were I to move to a more developed area.

And secondly, limit weapon ownership to one per person.

You have no idea how far-out that suggestion is.

Just what police-state measures would you support in order to locate and forcibly confiscate 220 million "excess" guns from their ~60+ million owners? You'd make Bushco's illegal wiretaps, Patriot Act, and whatnot look like passing notes in kindergarten.

Merely raising prices on handgun magazines, and requiring minor cosmetic changes to small-caliber carbines, cost at least 19 House seats, the Senate, and at least one presidency. Care to speculate how sending guys with machineguns and black body armor to steal the prized possessions of sixty million voters would go over?

Answer: it wouldn't. The party that tried it would be tossed out of Washington so fast, you'd hear the sonic boom in Bangor.

If some of these reforms can't be enacted, he's just pandering to gun-crazy clientele.

You propose to eliminate the shooting sports, end hunting, and forcibly confiscate 75% of the lawfully and responsibly owned guns in the United States, and you call those "reforms"?

No thanks...



----------------------
Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What? (written in '04, largely vindicated in '06, IMO)

The Conservative Roots of U.S. Gun Control

[riqster]

30. Have you lived in rural America?

To drive to the local grocery can be quite a burden on someone who is un- or under-employed. For one thing, it can be 30 miles away-and that's up and down, twisty, under-maintained roads. Too, the prices are often out of reach of such people as well. Gardening, fishing, and hunting are how these folks feed themselves. I oughta know-some of them are neighbors of mine.

"They can drive to local grocery" has a "let them eat cake" ring to it.

[sendero]

29. I hate to break the news to you..

.... "Mr. Audacious Hope", but I live in the city and in the country and you ain't getting my guns and you know it.

So keep trying to find that perfect middle ground on everything, while you stand for ab so fucking lute ly nothing, and I'll continue to hope with every fiber of my being that you crater in Iowa and NH.

Fair enough?