“I don’t know – when would I have started on this enterprise, right?”
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Obama defended his support for the constitutional right to gun ownership while arguing it was consistent with his efforts to curb mass shootings. He said the NRA was refusing to acknowledge the government’s responsibility to make legal products safer, citing seatbelts and child-proof medicine bottles as examples.
He predicted during the 2012 campaign that Obama would say he hadn’t pushed for any gun control laws or try to renew the assault weapon ban that expired in 2004, adding, “He’ll offer the 2nd Amendment lip service, and hit the campaign trail saying he’s actually been good for the 2nd Amendment, but it’s a big fat, stinkin’ lie, just like all the other lies that come out of this administration”. “You think they want to put tighter restrictions on guns?”
NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said before the event that the group saw “no reason to participate in a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House”.
However, the NRA live-tweeted the town hall, using the hashtag for the event #GunsInAmerica. Still, the group pushed back on Obama in real time with a stream of posts on Twitter. A Quinnipiac University poll in December found that 89 percent of Americans favored “a law requiring background checks on people buying guns at gun shows or online”.
He called out Congress for failing to embrace his call to ramp up funding for Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents – underscoring the central problem Obama faces: Congress isn’t going to touch that issue, nor anything else he pushes connected to gun control.
Obama’s actions on guns have drawn major attention in the presidential campaign, with the Democratic candidates backing Obama and the Republicans unanimously voicing opposition.
“I’m sorry, but yes, it is fair to call it a conspiracy”, Obama said at a town hall hosted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who asked about a “conspiracy … because a lot of people really believe this deeply, that they just don’t – they just don’t trust you”. One likely option for opponents is to challenge Obama’s authority to define what it means to be “engaged in the business” of selling guns, since that definition isn’t laid out in the law. Trump asked. “That’s bait”.
“The way Washington changes is when people vote”, Obama said.
Most significant, Obama broadened the definition of a gun dealer to make it clear that anyone who sells firearms “as a regular course of trade or business” must conduct background checks on customers. It was bipartisan. It had a majority of the Senate. At Thursday’s town hall, he referred to the Sandy Hook massacre as one of the worst days of his presidency. Kyle, whose autobiography inspired the film American Sniper, survived four tours in Iraq only to be shot and killed at a gun range in Texas.
Though the president didn’t suggest the forum, the extended discussion, touching on a myriad of issues related to gun rights and public safety, was precisely the kind of substantive exchange he’s craved on an issue that has lent itself to extreme rhetoric.
“But let me just jump in”.
An Associated Press review shows that Obama’s executive actions would have had no impact in keeping weapons from suspects in several of the deadliest incidents, including Newtown, Connecticut; San Bernardino, California; and Aurora, Colorado.
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President Barack Obama on Thursday said that smart gun technology that would prevent guns from being fired by anyone but their rightful owners is being held up by gun lobbyists and manufacturers.
