Obama Avoids Gun Control In Comments On Illinois Tragedy

Political Radar:

After another campus shooting, this time in his home state of Illinois, Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama offered thoughts and prayers for the victims and their families. But no new ideas for gun control.

"Today we offer them our prayers, but we must also offer them our determination to do whatever it takes to eradicate this violence from our streets and our schools," he said.

Read the whole story: Political Radar

Comments

[KarenZipdrive]

I wish all these spineless politicians would send their thoughts and prayers to someone who could write some convincing legislation that would restrict gun ownership to single shot rifles.
If I had to face a Glock or a shotgun, I'd choose to pick the buckshot out of my ass any day.
The NRA must have delivered a bag o' cash to Obama. He's proven to be no different from the rest of these panderers running for office.

[Thirdpower]

Shows how much you know. Here's a couple photos of people who needed to "pick out some buckshot".

http://www.johnandkenshow.com/archives/2005/12/01/tookie-williams-victim-photos/

Obama is just like every other politician on the planet. It didn't take "bags o cash", just where the votes are.

[perldog007]

If I wish to buy a single shot rifle then filling out the paperwork, passing the background check and paying my money will suffice.

If I want a fully automatic new Military rifle, six thousand dollars and the right contacts are all that is needed. Illegal handguns are much easier to come by.

Even thought it is more of a hassle, I take the legal method every time. Criminals do not.

Please consider that when calling for more gun laws. Banning Narcotics like heroin and restricting drugs like cocaine has not kept them from criminals. You are asking us to believe that gun laws will keep guns from Criminals?

Also do you believe that criminals are harmless without firearms? Is that why prisons are so safe?

Since I don't engage in any conduct that warrants pointing a gun at me, any gun I face will be held by a criminal. Hope that never happens and that people who face that are never deprived of their right to armed resistance to such.

Just as I disagree with you but would defend your right to free speech, in fact I have with military and civil service. You are welcome.

Peace,

Doug

[cruisepuppy7452a]

Barack cannot change what happened. Talk won't bring back the kids who died. This wasn't about guns, it was about how our healthcre system failed this young man. Yes, he used guns and they indeed killed those kids. You can do a gun buyback program, make it tougher for people to get guns, but it won't keep them off the streets or out of the hands of the wrong people. Gun dealers will sell to anyone who pays for them, the black market will continue to sell them, and until we are ready to go after the black market, nothing will change. The reason people can get them online is you guessed it the black market. Go after that, and then you will see fewer guns out there in the hands of those unfit to use them.

[VillageMutt]

Spineless and Shameful

The great home of America?

Spineless and Shameful
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[1will]

Obama is anti gun. The press is giving him a pass on his earlier statements about guns.
If Obama runs from his positions and also fears Foxnews then what the hell is he going to do in the White House? Hope, dream and wish all day while he hides under the covers and behind locked doors.

[fact finder]

1will in my reply to Samantha on page 4 I deliberately called the conditioning subliminal when in fat it is operant conditioning. and no body caught it. Does any body pay attention to the comments or are you all just whaling. BTW whaling is spouting off just to hear your own voice. 1776

[1will]

Evidently no one pays any attention to your comments. It's definately not worth going back 4 pages for.

[Kally]

Wonders of Wonders. obama DID NOT take a stand on something. He is really following all his previous actions. He never takes a stand on anything. But then when you have glassy eyed bunch of kids bowing and scraping and waving and chanting he doesn't have to take a stand on anything.

All he has to do is smile and wave and the glassy eyed zombies eat it up. Ever been to one of those rock concerts? Where they fall on the ground titch and cry. Well go to one of his speeches.

AND WITH ALL THE NETWORKS, CABLE TV RADIO AND NEWSPAPER SPEWING HILLARY HATE WHAT DO YOU EXPECT. Watch...if he does manage to steal the nomination, how quick the MSM will come out with all the crap he has done, that he is a vapid empty suit that can't find his ass in the shower.

[FarSeeingArt]

More information regarding Sen. Obama's extremist anti gun anti firearms rights position.

http://www.snubnose.info/wordpress/news/barack-obama-on-gun-control/

His positions are so over the top it's difficult to see how he can benefit by their publication. He is well advised to hide on this issue.

[1will]

Thanks for the link. Keep up the good work.

[Kally]

HA!!! he hides on every issue. You have to be deaf and blind not to see that.

[TimN]

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Barack_Obama_Gun_Control.htm

BAN SEMI-AUTOMATICS, AND MORE POSSESSION RESTRICTIONS
- Principles that Obama supports on gun issues:
- Ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
- Increase state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
- Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks with firearms.
- Source: 1998 IL State Legislative National Political Awareness Test Jul 2, 1998
------------
VOTED NO ON PROHIBITING LAWSUITS AGAINST GUN MANUFACTURERS.
A bill to prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from the misuse of their products by others. Voting YES would:
- Exempt lawsuits brought against individuals who knowingly transfer a firearm that will be used to commit a violent or drug-trafficking crime
- Exempt lawsuits against actions that result in death, physical injury or property damage due solely to a product defect
- Call for the dismissal of all qualified civil liability actions pending on the date of enactment by the court in which the action was brought
- Prohibit the manufacture, import, sale or delivery of armor piercing ammunition, and sets a minimum prison term of 15 years for violations
- Require all licensed importers, manufacturers and dealers who engage in the transfer of handguns to provide secure gun storage or safety devices
- Reference: Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act; Bill S 397 ; vote number 2005-219 on Jul 29, 2005

[richsmith]

Thanks TimN for the background, I did not know that Obama has been that actively engaged with gun lovers and their idea that "happiness is a warm gun".

[TimN]

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Barack_Obama_Gun_Control.htm

STOP UNSCRUPULOUS GUN DEALERS DUMPING GUNS IN CITIES
Q: How would you address gun violence that continues to be the #1 cause of death among African-American men?
A: You know, when the massacre happened at Virginia Tech, I think all of us were grief stricken and shocked by the carnage. But in this year alone, in Chicago, we've had 34 Chicago public school students gunned down and killed. And for the most part, there has been silence. We know what to do. We've got to enforce the gun laws that are on the books. We've got to make sure that unscrupulous gun dealers aren't loading up vans and dumping guns in our communities, because we know they're not made in our communities. There aren't any gun manufacturers here, right here in the middle of Detroit. But what we also have to do is to make sure that we change our politics so that we care just as much about those 30-some children in Chicago who've been shot as we do the children in Virginia Tech. That's a mindset that we have to have in the White House and we don't have it right now.

Source: 2007 NAACP Presidential Primary Forum Jul 12, 2007

------------
KEEP GUNS OUT OF INNER CITIES--BUT ALSO PROBLEM OF MORALITY
I believe in keeping guns out of our inner cities, and that our leaders must say so in the face of the gun manfuacturer's lobby. But I also believe that when a gangbanger shoots indiscriminately into a crowd because he feels someone disrespected him, we have a problem of morality. Not only do ew need to punish thatman for his crime, but we need to acknowledge that there's a hole in his heart, one that government programs alone may not be able to repair.
Source: The Audacity of Hope, by Barack Obama, p.215 Oct 1, 2006

[Berettasskeeter]

Can you point out any "gun dealers who load up vans and dumping guns in our communities"? A gun dealer requires Federal licensing, business licensing, tax ID, etc. No legal gun dealer does what you claim and stays out of jail for long. Name any current offenders!
Semper fi

[TimN]

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Barack_Obama_Gun_Control.htm

PROVIDE SOME COMMON-SENSE ENFORCEMENT ON GUN LICENSING
Q: When you were in the state senate, you talked about licensing and registering gun owners. Would you do that as president?
A: I don't think that we can get that done. But what we can do is to provide just some common-sense enforcement. The efforts by law enforcement to obtain the information required to trace back guns that have been used in crimes to unscrupulous gun dealers. As president, I intend to make it happen. We essentially have two realities, when it comes to guns, in this country. You've got the tradition of lawful gun ownership. It is very important for many Americans to be able to hunt, fish, take their kids out, teach them how to shoot. Then you've got the reality of 34 Chicago public school students who get shot down on the streets of Chicago. We can reconcile those two realities by making sure the Second Amendment is respected and that people are able to lawfully own guns, but that we also start cracking down on the kinds of abuses of firearms that we see on the streets.
Source: 2008 Democratic debate in Las Vegas Jan 15, 2008
------------
2000: COSPONSORED BILL TO LIMIT PURCHASES TO 1 GUN PER MONTH
Obama sought moderate gun control measures, such as a 2000 bill he cosponsored to limit handgun purchases to one per month (it did not pass). He voted against letting people violate local weapons bans in cases of self-defense, but also voted in2004 to let retired police officers carry concealed handguns.
Source: The Improbable Quest, by John K. Wilson, p.148 Oct 30, 2007

[richsmith]

Obama's wise in avoiding a confrontation with the gun lobby, and that mass of "red blooded 'Merican patriots" that support it. It would serve no purpose in his bid for the presidency. Such responsive action would be like confronting the AIPAC lobby on questions of Jewish/Arab co-existence and just interaction between Israelis and Palestinians. Getting into the middle of those things can serve no practical purpose. Only after achieving office could he have any positive power to confront the dangerous ideological concepts supported by those lobbies.

I think he is exercising good judgment in avoiding confrontation at this point in time, and isn't judgment one of the key factors in the Presidential campaign that the US is experiencing.

[BardEric]

Good judgement is important; so is NOT being afraid to disclose your stance on an issue because it might not be politically expedient for you. Do you want a president who shies away from an issue that can burn him/her? I dont.

[brakmaster]

You Fools

Barack Obama has risen above Politics of Specifics and Soars in The Clouds of Platitudes.

Specifics on Regulations? How dare you participate in the Politics of Yesterday!

All we need to do is pray. And enforce existing laws. Oh, and common sense. That's it. That's all Obama is offering. And that's all we need. (unless you are a worshiper in the Cult of the Clinton Mongrels)

[pleeezzze]

A Worshipping uniter !!!

[BlueBoomer]

I'm not sure how we can do it, given the patient privacy acts, etc., but it seems that there ought to be a way that anyone who has been committed to a mental institution/mental health facility within the past 10 or 15 years, as this shooter had, should not be allowed to own fire-arms of any kind.

Patient/doctor privilege is also getting in the way of the police in NYC trying to find the murderer of that psych doctor, because they can't get access to her patient records to LOOK FOR a possible suspect.

Frankly, I think public/personal safety can sometimes trump some personal privacy...­The problem is identifying the line and then drawing it...
Maybe issues like this should be put to public referendum, with relevant scenarios presented in understandable lay terms to be voted yes, no, no opinion, abstain...­and if the YES/NO votes constitute a simple (or 2/3) majority of the total, then whichever of the two received the majority would become the law for two years...at which time they would be revisited once more to establish "permanancy".

It just seems that more and more in this country common sense and the majority have become the losers.

[justmeinAz]

The problem is that psych ward patients commit less violent acts than patients in any other area of the hospital, including geriatrics, so that's an assumption about who's dangerous that the evidence doesn't bear out.

[WorkingClass]

Thanks Az. That needed saying.

[pimpdown]

I am an Obama voter and I am glad he did not politicize the tragedy with gun control. I am against gun control. They had a gun control zone on campus. How did that work out? All the gun control people love to use death to try and get through there agenda. The people who obey the law were defenseless just like you want.

[godlessclif]

Why aren't you supporting Ron Paul instead of Obama if you want all the students on campus armed?

Ron Paul's Colorado campaign manager

"The Constitution, without qualification, states that the individual
right to own and carry weapons will not be infringed. Title 18,
U.S. Code, Sections 241 and 242, ordains as a crime the violation of
anybody's civil rights. Part of the XIVth Amendment requires removal
of any politician who defies the Constitution, barring him (or her)
from public office in perpetuity. And, of course, betraying one's
oath of office is perjury, which is a felony.

By attempting to ban semiautomatic weapons (or weapons of any sort),
city authorities in Dayton, Ohio and Rochester, New York have broken
all these laws. It's possible that conspiracy and racketeering
statutes apply to their illicit activities, as well.

We all know how slight the chances are that any of these miscreants
will be prosecuted for having violated our natural, fundamental,
inalienable human, civil, and Constitutional rights under the current
political circumstances. So do they, or they wouldn't have broken the
law. However as students of history, we also know that political
circumstances change -- a fact they seem to have overlooked­."...L Neil Smith

[MilwaukeeMike]

Forgive me for my ignorance, but "gun control" isn't an issue here. It is a tragedy of enormous scale, no question. I can't imagine how any further regulation or background check system would have prevented this, other than, perhaps, a national list of folks taking anti-depre­ssants--wh­ich I understand to be a rather large % of our population. Banning hand-guns doesn't stop someone who is sick from using a shot gun in a guitar case. There is too, of course, the Second Amendment.

As for Obama's stance on this, Democrats always get stupid and say stupid things about the 3 G's (Guns, Gays and God) which are polarizing. I think he's being smart.

[TimN]

In Obama's defense, this idiot in Illinois who committed these murders used a shotgun. Even in Britain or Japan shotguns are legal to own. If the restrictive gun laws of these countries couldn't have prevented this crime what's the point in talking about gun control?

[MilwaukeeMike]

And I just noted that I agreed with TimN--a first. Apparently, there are things a bipolar society can work together on.

[Seafarer61]

One thing about Obama you can be sure of...that you never know what side of a controversial issue he's on...THAT much, yup...you can be sure of.

Brag about an opposition speech to the invasion of Iraq when one was NOT a US Senator and then continually vote to fund it once you are. Talk about the rights of US citizens to bear arms but then tailor those rights depending on what state you're in at the time of your campaign.

This guy is slicker than whale shit on ice flow.

[BlueBoomer]

...And don't forget Obama's failure to even show up for the Biden/Gelb Iraq resolution AND the Kyl-Lieberman Iran resolution that everyone else felt was important enough to vote on...

...It's SO much easier to not be wrong if you don't even vote...
which demonstrates clearly that he's a legislative coward and hypocrite, and is clever/cynical enough to realize that should anyone tries to hold his feet to the fire about anything serious, SOME IDIOT out there will suggest that they are racist, so instead he's given a big fat pass.

Not to say I like Hillary much better, except that she and Bill, at least, are OBVIOUS in their ambition, unlike Obama, who is every bit as ambitious, but hides it behind smoke and mirrors and speechifying rhetoric.

To everyone out there, starting with the media, who killed off the campaigns of the two TRULY QUALIFIED and uncontrove­rsial/unpo­larizing Democratic candidates (Joe BIDEN and Chris Dodd):

THANKS A F**KING LOT...NOT.

[godlessclif]

I thought whale shit was at the bottom of the ocean; thus the phrase "Lower than Whale Shit"

Does Obama want to Nuke the whales or save the whales? We may never know?

[ddlrid]

goodness, you are pretty hateful...­as usual. this was not the moment to talk about gun control, it was a moment to offer condolences to the victims of a heinous crime in his home state. if you want info on his stance on gun control, do your 'friggin homework, lazy ass.

[pleeezzze]

Actually there is Never going to be a BETTER time to discuss gun control !!
This why it should be discussed and acted on Now !!!