“The goal of the town hall meeting is for the President to engage with both people who support his position on gun safety, but also to have a conversation with those who don’t agree with some of the President’s positions on these issues”, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said on Wednesday of the event at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
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In the wake of December’s San Bernardino shooting, where Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and his wife Tashfeen Malik, 27, killed 14 people with legally purchased assault weapons, the New York Times published a front-page editorial calling for an end to gun violence. “All of us are interested in fighting crime”.
“Yes, it is a false notion that I believe is circulated either for political reasons or commercial reasons in order to prevent a coming together of people of goodwill” to solve the problem of gun violence, Obama told the audience and Anderson Cooper, who moderated the forum.
“I think he’s been pretty hostile to the second amendment all along”. The right side of her body is largely paralyzed.
President Barack Obama said on Thursday that he will not campaign for Democrats who don’t back gun reforms, part of his effort to make tougher gun laws a cause in the November 2016 presidential and congressional elections. Obama noted the emotional toll the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School took on him, saying his visit with victims’ families days later even brought members of his Secret Service detail to tears.
The city observed the day with an annual bell ringing at two locations, including Banner University Medical Center, where numerous victims were treated.
What I’ve said consistently throughout my presidency is I respect the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms.
In an interview on Fox News, the NRA’s Chris Cox said Obama was “creating an illusion that he is doing something to keep people safe”.
Obama strongly refuted allegations that he wants to take everybody’s guns, describing it as a conspiracy.
The NRA, which received the lion’s share of Obama’s ire, declined an invitation to take part in the town hall. “They’re just down the street”.
Obama’s remarks came when he was asked by Cooper about past remarks on gun owners, including his statement that some “bitter Americans” cling to their guns.
“Yes, that is a conspiracy”, Obama said. Yes, that is a conspiracy. “Is that controversial, except on some websites around the country?”
It was the kind of civilized exchange that some Americans thought they were in line for when Obama took office in 2009 promising to cleanse American politics of its “petty grievances” and “recriminations and worn-out dogmas”. “When will I have started on this enterprise” to confiscate guns? he said.
“Look, I mean, I’m only going to be here for another year”. Reducing gun violence will be hard.
“I will not campaign for, vote for, or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support common-sense gun reform”. While Obama has conducted hundreds of town hall events as a candidate and president, it’s rare for him to hear so directly from ordinary Americans who oppose his policies.
“I think it’s really important for us not to suggest that if we can’t solve every crime we shouldn’t try to solve any crimes”, Obama said.
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President Obama will speak on his plans to curtail gun violence at a special town hall tonight. Meanwhile, 38% of respondents said he’d gone too far.
