Barack Obama’s Stance on the Second Amendment
While I was reading Democrat=Socialist yesterday I came across a link on a multi-subject post to this article on Pajamas Media that I found very interesting. I just had to write on the subject also.
Respect the Second Amendment: Millions of hunters own and use guns each year. Millions more participate in a variety of shooting sports such as sporting clays, skeet, target, and trap shooting that may not necessarily involve hunting. As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, and he greatly respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms. He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting. He also believes that the right is subject to reasonable and commonsense regulation.
That statement comes directly from Barack Obama’s website. Notice anything missing in that statement? The right to self defense? Where is that mentioned? He states that he will protect the rights of hunters and the people’s right to own guns for target shooting. Let’s look at what the second amendment actually says:
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
I don’t see anything there about the people’s right to hunt, but let’s look again.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Nope, nothing there about hunting. As a matter of fact I don’t see anything there about the people’s right to target shoot either. That was not the intent of the second amendment.
Barack Obama does not understand what the second amendment stands for. Or he does and he disagrees with it. He can’t possibly believe that the second amendment protects target shooting and hunting but does not protect a person’s right to defend himself, can he? Let’s look at Barack Obama’s stance on several gun control issues.
- As a state legislator in Illinois, Obama supported banning the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic firearms, increasing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms
- He supported a “ban” on the sale and possession of handguns on a political questionnaire
- As state senator, he voted against a 2004 measure that allowed self-defense as an affirmative defense to those charged with violating local laws making it otherwise unlawful for such persons to possess firearms.
- He voted against allowing persons who had obtained domestic violence protective orders to carry handguns for their protection.
- Obama has also stated his opposition to allowing citizens to carry concealed guns and supports a national law outlawing the practice
What do you think now? Barack Obama is against selling and owning handguns. He is against using a gun in self defense, he is opposed to concealed carry and supports a federal ban on concealed carry.
Barack Obama does not support the second amendment at all. He can pander to the sportsmen all he wants but he is ignoring the true meaning of the second amendment. He doesn’t like the second amendment, he has contempt and disdain for it. While the statement from his website says he respects the second amendment his words and his actions prove otherwise.
By the way, isn’t he alienating PETA and the like with his position on hunting? Did he forget about them?
America's Watchtower 
Weak.
I see you limited yourself to reading what you wanted to into his statement.
Read what you want into this statement: *Gives the blogger the finger*
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I wrote his words and gave an opinion. What’s wrong with that? Why don’t you tell me what you think his statement means. Or did you already reach your limit?
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“He doesn’t like the second amendment, he has contempt and disdain for it.”
Hi Pink. I also think it’s a weak argument, but I could see where you were going with it until I got here. I think this sentence is a bit much.
Speaking personally, and as I have stated before, I belive in gun control and more responsible selling/licensing laws. I think concealed carry is a bad idea. This doesn’t mean that I have contempt and disdain for the 2nd amendment. I most certainly do not. Seeing as though it appears that Obama has similar views to mine, I can’t imagine that he has “contempt and disdain.”
Those are pretty harsh and unwarranted words, in my opinion.
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Oh, and I’ll go though each point just to show the other side:
* As a state legislator in Illinois, Obama supported banning the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic firearms, increasing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms
(in order to really see what he “supported” one would have to read the bills that he sponsored or voted for. This is a pretty broad reaching statement. What does “increasing restrictions” mean? Did he support a waiting period, background checks? What? Without knowing what the restrictions are, you can’t really tell what his intent was)
* He supported a “ban” on the sale and possession of handguns on a political questionnaire
(I’d be curious to see the wording of the questionnaire. What exactly did he support?)
* As state senator, he voted against a 2004 measure that allowed self-defense as an affirmative defense to those charged with violating local laws making it otherwise unlawful for such persons to possess firearms.
(What else was in this bill? Any riders? Funding for something else? Specific language? Again, it’s fine and good to say he voted against something, but what was it? Could this have been a rider on another bill? It could have)
* He voted against allowing persons who had obtained domestic violence protective orders to carry handguns for their protection.
(Same argument as above)
* Obama has also stated his opposition to allowing citizens to carry concealed guns and supports a national law outlawing the practice
(Fair enough, I’ve heard him speak to this issue. I must say I agree with him. I don’t think a concealed carry is in anyone’s best interest. If people are to carry guns in public, they should not be concealed. Others have a right to know that people around them are armed. Just my opinion.)
Just playing devil’s advocate.
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I am a concealed carry advocate. I am a self defense advocate. Having been mugged at a bar and beaten to the point of havine a fractured skull and broken teeth, I am a firm beleiver in self dfense. And after that, having used a handgun in my defense, without firing a shot, I can say that handguns are a deterent against violence. Four individuals followed me home through 8 miles of rush hour traffic and accosted me in the street. Having my gun on hand diffused the situation. In the time it would have taken for the police to arrive, I could have been beaten senseless or worse. Just to let you know, legally owned and carried fire arms are just not used in violent crimes.
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I’m sorry you were accosted.
I still maintain that in your last scenario, it wouldn’t have really made a difference if your gun was holstered in plain view rather than being concealed.
Again, I firmly believe that others have a right to know that people around them are armed.
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Project Openletter, maybe I went a little overboard. I tend to get worked up sometimes as a write. But I don’t think he respects it. I don’t think he likes it very much.
As I was reading about different states and their concealed carry rights or lack thereof I found an interesting FAQ article about my state, New Hampshire. In New Hampshire a non felon can walk around with a gun open carry without any type of permit, a permit is only needed to carry concealed. While reading this article one of the questions that was asked was about open carry laws in New Hampshire. The article went on to point out what I mentioned above about New Hampshire law. But then the article went on to say that a person is better off carrying concealed so as to not panic anybody in public. The article said that while it is perfectly legal to open carry in New Hampshire that somebody would without a doubt call the police to report “a man with a gun” even though you were doing nothing wrong.
I just thought of this article when you mentioned that the public had the right to know if people around them were armed and thought I would share it.
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If that is his idea of “pandering to the right”, then THAT is what’s weak. “subject to reasonable and common sense regulation”? Does reasonable translate to PC?
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Barack Obama is an insult to the 2nd Amendment in the Constitution , which i hold dearly and respect the 2nd amendment it allows us to hunt and becoma and stay sportsmen of the outdoors . Illionois was one of the worst states in America to hunt or the most strictest in gun control no wonder their crime rate is higher in Chicago then Detroit or Philadelphia I will not vote for a person who dont support the 2nd Amendment or does not support sportsmen who has carried on the tradition of whitetail hunting for generations……
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Here’s another two cents worth.
Project Openletter, consider this. Being a law abiding citizen in legal possession of a firearm aka Handgun, I have a responsibility to protect me, my family, and the public around me. Mr Pink Eyes is correct in stating that carrying in open carry while legal, is more apt to cause problems. The “Oh My God a Gun” factor is huge! Leaves a perfect law abiding citizen open to false accusations.
Now, if more people carried concealed and safely kept firearms at home for protection would in not cause criminals to rethink their actions? Would that not cut down crime?
As a CCW permit holder in my state, working in the Law Enforcement field I would be terrified of what could possibly happen to me or my family if accosted by a criminal. I am not a licensed peace officer but I do work around and with inmates so I rely on my CCW permit to carry my handgun. Now does this mean if I lose the ability to carry a concealed weapon, that the law is working for the betterment of society? Does that make my community safer? More importantly, me or my family?
I don’t give a rat’s rosey rear end that Joe Blow on the street feels threatened because I conceal my weapon. It is concealed for my protection and the for the concern of the general public. If more law abiding people carried, violent crime would drop. Period.
Yes there needs to be laws. Yes there needs to be control. But taking legal guns out of the hands of law abiding Americans is not the answer to anything. It only creates more problems.
Research Canada and Australia’s gun abolishing stats and how well it helped the drop in crime.
I’m off my soapbox now!
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I just want to say that many people complain about concealed weapons and talk about how the government needs to step in and begin to take guns away from law abiding citizens. I own weapons for sport but also for defense. I am also tired of people stating that the Constitution is outdated and can be loosely interpreted. IT CAN”T!!! These are the things Madison and Jefferson were worried about in the late 18th century. Madison and Jefferson both supported the right to bear arms. They felt that a government that took these rights away from people would end up being an oppressive government. Here is a quote from Jefferson to Stephens Smith in 1787: “What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.”
Plus, I am tired of people telling me that I don’t have a right to weapons. Unless I am a crazy murdering psycho, one should have nothing to fear from me. I have the right to defend myself, and nobody should be allowed to tell me that I don’t. The Obamessiah sounds just like the new leader of the oppressive government the Jeffersonian Republicans feared would eventually take over if our basic rights were infringed.
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did not England ask U.S.citizens for donation of their personal fire arms during world war 2 so they could defend their home land? some never learn
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