US President Barack Obama on Thursday, January 7, vowed not to campaign or vote for any candidate who does not support tighter gun laws, as he rallied support for contentious executive measures. Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody’s guns away so that we can enforce marshal law is a conspiracy? “If you listen to the rhetoric, it is so over-the-top, it is so overheated”. Stronger background checks, Obama told the audience, which included victims of gun-related violence and their families, “may be able to save a whole bunch of families from the grief that some of the people in this audience have gone through”. The National Rifle Assn., which has been particularly critical of Obama’s plans to take a series of executive actions on background checks and other measures, declined an invitation to attend, although there were gun rights advocates present.
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But it also included some major victories for the National Rifle Association and gun rights activists, who had long complained about overzealous enforcement of the Gun Control Act.
During the discussion Obama repeatedly addressed what he said was a “conspiracy” propagated by political critics that he wanted to take people’s guns away.
“This means CNN and the White House are completely shaping the narrative for the event by choosing the people who will participate”.
“Keep in mind I’ve been president for over seven years and gun sales don’t seem to have suffered during that time”. In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Obama attributed some of the tensions over the issue to divergent perceptions on gun ownership between rural and inner city communities.
“There’s no more gun free zones”, Trump said to loud applause.
Mr Obama’s executive decision might succeed, eventually, in reducing the number of guns in the hands of mentally unstable people, but it skirts the issue of the United States government’s complicity in deadly guns leaving its ports and fuelling a crime wave here. “This town is squarely behind the President and behind Hillary in wanting serious gun reform because something is better than nothing at this point”. “Every week, there’s a story about a young person getting shot. And to end them, we must change”.
Embarking on his final year in the White House, Obama is looking to solidify his legacy.
On October 22, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the next big gun reform law, in the aftermath of three high-profile, violent deaths.
“I’m happy to meet with them”. However, NRA Executive Director Chris Cox is scheduled to appear on Fox News’ The Kelly File at 9 PM to respond to the President’s remarks.
Taking the stage at George Mason University, Obama accused the NRA of refusing to participate in the town hall despite having its headquarters nearby.
The town hall setting provides Obama with an opportunity to make his case before a primetime TV audience through conversations with supporters and critics, rather than speeches that even he’s acknowledged have become repetitive in the wake of numerous mass shootings.
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Earlier Thursday the president’s chief spokesman criticized Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz for a campaign solicitation that declared, “Obama wants your guns”, and included a sinister portrayal of the president. The mogul reiterated a pledge to get rid of gun-free zones. “I would get rid of gun-free zones on my first day”.
