NRA Lies About Obama's Positions on Handguns, Ammo and Defense

By Stephen C. Rose

In an extensive analysis, FactCheck has flagged false claims by the National Rifle Association (NRA) in mailers and TV ads. Specifically, the NRA says, "Obama plans to ban handguns, hunting ammo and use of a gun for home defense."

FactCheck states:

The NRA is circulating printed material and running TV ads making unsubstantiated claims that Obama plans to ban use of firearms for home defense, ban possession and manufacture of handguns, close 90 percent of gun shops and ban hunting ammunition.

Much of what the NRA passes off as Obama's "10 Point Plan to 'Change' the Second Amendment" is actually contrary to what he has said throughout his campaign: that he "respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms" and "will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns."

The NRA, however, simply dismisses Obama's stated position as "rhetoric" and substitutes its own interpretation of his record as a secret "plan." Said an NRA spokesman: "We believe our facts."

But FactCheck states: "We find the NRA has cherry-picked, twisted and misrepresented Obama's record to come up with a bogus "plan."

The flier looks almost as though it comes from the Obama campaign. It uses the same color and font scheme as well as the campaign's sunrise logo. And on some points it is right; Obama has called for national legislation against carrying concealed firearms, and he would revive and make permanent the expired ban on semi-automatic "assault weapons," for example. On other points it exaggerates. Obama has spoken in favor of government registration of handguns, for example, but has not called for registration of all "firearms" including hunting rifles and shotguns. But the TV spots and fliers also make claims that are directly contrary to what Obama actually says about guns.

The entire FactCheck post is well worth a read. Here is its summary of Obama's actual position.

Regarding a Constitutional right to guns, Obama says:

... Barack Obama believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, and he 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.

On the issue of urban policy, Obama says he favors "commonsense measures" to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children, and that he would bring back the expired "assault weapon" ban and make it permanent:

... Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn't have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.

Comments

[EmilyU]

Fact Check has corrected their original article twice now. And numerous other errors in their article have been pointed out by a great many people.

Bottom line, Fact Check is not as reliable a source as many believe.

[djkrlsn]

Since Obama has recorded votes supporting gun and ammo bans and he has expressed his support for the DC and Chicago gun laws post Heller--sure looks like the NRA is telling the TRUTH and the Abomanation is lying

[djkrlsn]

Considering how hugely unpopular the Clinton gun control was, Obama's support for it is scary, especially since I don't know what he has not ADMITTED to supporting

[Thirdpower]

The Obama campaign is suing to keep people from seeing the video. Guess their not quite as sure as people claim they are:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RM0MO3bgvw0

[Willbill]

If Newt Gingrich were running for president, and he stated that he supported women’s right to choose an abortion with reasonable common sense restrictions, would anyone believe that he is now pro-choice? Considering his record, why should anyone believe Barack Hussein Obama when he states he supports an individual’s right to keep and bear arms?
If fact check really checked into Obama’s record they would have found that he:

Voted to ban almost all rifle ammunition commonly used for hunting and sport shooting.

Endorsed a 500% increase in the federal excise tax on firearms and ammunition.

Endorsed a complete ban on handgun ownership in Illinois.

Voiced Support for local gun bans in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and other cities.

Voted to uphold local gun bans and the criminal prosecution of people
who use firearms in self-defense.

Refused to sign a friend-of-the-court Brief in support of individual Second Amendment rights in the Heller case.

Favors a ban on standard capacity magazines.

Supports a ban on inexpensive handguns.

Get the true facts on Barack Hussein Obama’s record on firearms rights.
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?id=234&issue=047

And no FactCheck’s deception.
http://www.gunbanobama.com/Default.aspx?NavGuid=c3d25dd2-7abd-4f24-8efd-d62bd977d7c2&ID=11574&Type=1

[djkrlsn]

Obama's record shows his support for gun bans/gun control--including backdoor approaches like outragoues taxes on firearms and ammo. How many poor/middle class people that Obama CLAIMS to be all about protecting would be able to hunt or shoot if a $10 box of ammo costs $100 after taxes, a $20 goes to $200 (the price of every round going up by a factor of 5 or 10 times because of taxes) --and the same thing happens to firearms. Remember the power to tax is the power to destroy.

[blueman55]

Obama and Biden have no problem sending Americans to die in pointless wars but same Americans can't be trusted to own a gun...

Makes perfect sense!

[Thirdpower]

..".There's another possible explanation behind FactCheck's positions. Just last year, FactCheck's primary funding source, the Annenberg Foundation, also gave $50,000 to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence for "efforts to reduce gun violence by educating the public and by enacting and enforcing regulations governing the gun industry." Annenberg made a similar grant for $100,000 in 2005."

http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/NewsReleases.aspx?ID=11574

[Thirdpower]

Hmm. When Clinton was making similar claims about Obama and handguns, FactCheck gave it an "undetermined" w/ the same evidence:

"We can't say for sure if he did or not. We haven't been able to find any evidence that he acted on it if he did. In the Illinois Senate, he voted for gun control, including limiting handgun purchases to one a month, but no attempts at a ban that we are aware of. And he didn't advocate a handgun ban when he was running for U.S. Senate. Still, the reason for the answer on the questionnaire remains unclear."

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/gunning_for_obama.html

Why the change?

[Thirdpower]

Here's what the Violence Policy Center wrote about "Assault Weapons":

"The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons."

This was written by them while Obama was on the board of the Joyce Foundation, which consequently provided most of their funding.

[Thirdpower]

Here's the quote from Sen. Kennedy on his 'armor piercing ammo" ban that Obama co-sponsored:

"Another rifle caliber, the 30.30 caliber, was responsible for penetrating three officers? armor and killing them in 1993, 1996, and 2002. This ammunition is also capable of puncturing light-armored vehicles, ballistic or armored glass, armored limousines, even a 600-pound safe with 600 pounds of safe armor plating."

Yep, he included a low powered .30 cal round used in hunting.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r108:1:./temp/~r108mIzMiu:e207032:

[Zingaro Zorro]

Now that Charlton Heston has crossed over like Moses the lost children of the NRA will need to find new spiritual leadership to confuse their members and confound intelligent thought.

This manifestation of nonsense is written in the ten stones of stupification cut by Moses Heston.

[silverball]

we should NOT expect anything less from the NRA....they, like the repubs will say or do anything to maintain their power....lying is just part of their vocabulary...a very linited vocabulary, i might add.....

[djkrlsn]

So Obama does not have a long history of supporting absurdly strict gun control--silverball--whoever is lying--it is not the NRA

[KiwisCanFly]

The NRA has an agenda they will promote regardless of the common-sense of banning assualt weapons from use by criminals and children in urban areas.

The gun show loophole should be closed.

Just as, in respect of our current economic crisis, the Enron Loophole, the The Foreign Markets Loophole and the Swaps Loophole should all be closed too.

Bottom line these are common-sense regulations.

Does the NRA have any common-sense alternatives to offer?
Obviously not, thus the distortion of Sen Obama's stance on this issue.

[HisXLNC]

There is nothing common-sense about banning weapons used in less than 1% of gun related crimes. There is nothing common-sense about banning law abiding citizens from buying those weapons, while criminals will continue to have unfettered access to them. There is nothing common-sense about banning the weapons that would be most likely used by the militia the second amendment speaks about.

Assault weapons bans are purely symbolic and unconstitutional. Nothing more.

[dragn1]

Not being a big fan of the NRA but it seeems they are pointing out that what Obama says now that he is trying to win the white house is much different from his voting record of the last 10 years. Frankly if you want to bring back the so called assault weapons ban then I have no time for you because you are an idiot. The crime statistics show there was no difference in crimes committed with this devices from the begining to the end. It was a sham. Stop crime leave the honest gun owners alone.

[Tenebrae]

Read again.
He does NOT support registering all handguns. You're falling into the PR blitz.

As for making access less cumbersome, if you are a responsible gun owner, you're storing your gun and ammo in seperate secure locations. Putting a trigger lock of other mechanism on the gun is another step, but will take less time to remove than getting your ammo from a second location will.

Unfortunately, irresponsible storage and use of firearms gives fodder to people who want to ban guns entirely. Obama isn't one of them.

I really hate gun support groups that spew GOP propoganda. I quit the NRA when I realized they would tell people to vote for the R candidate even when the D guy had a better voting record. It's a political sham.


Tenebrae
ex-Member Second Ammendment Sisters,
ex-NRA member