“I think a lot of people were surprised by that moment”, Obama said Thursday at a live town hall event with CNN’s Anderson Cooper in a Washington suburb.
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President Barack Obama tore into the nation’s largest gun lobby accusing it of peddling an “imaginary fiction” that has distorted the debate about firearms violence.
In a prime-time, televised forum, Mr. Obama dismissed what he called a “conspiracy” alleging that the federal government and Mr. Obama in particular wants to seize all firearms as a precursor to imposing martial law.
Growing more angry, Obama said: “But a conspiracy?” Pointing out the absurdity of the alarmists who claim Obama is trying to “take your guns away”, Kelly asked how Obama would go about rounding up all the guns scattered across America. “I think the president will repeat once again his belief in and commitment to the Second Amendment to the Constitution, and that the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans are worth protecting, including the constitutional rights that are guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the Constitution”.
UPDATE: 8:50 p.m. EST – After CNN played a clip of him crying during a Tuesday news conference on gun control, President Barack Obama said at a Thursday town hall he thought “tears were appropriate”.
The town hall took place not far from the headquarters of the National Rifle Association. Several NRA members were in the audience for the event, which was organised and hosted by CNN. Obama spent much of the evening defending his measures that he said were necessary given the lack of congressional action. “It was one of the worst days of my presidency”, Obama said. Asked how business had been since Obama took office, Jacob replied: “It’s been busy”.
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.
Indiana’s gun laws are in the spotlight both at home and on a national level after getting the attention of President Obama.
So the fact that 51 percent of Republicans agreed with Obama’s gun actions, even when told that Obama was the one proposing them, is pretty significant.
The town hall meeting followed new executive actions that tightened gun control by clarifying how firearms sellers are classified, requiring a license and background checks to be preformed on potential buyers. Last week, Obama blasted Congress in his weekly radio address for not addressing gun control, citing the influence of the gun lobby in the face of popular public support. “The way it is described, is that we are trying to take away everybody’s guns”, he said.
“Even if you get rid of guns, you could still get stabbed to death, beat to death, [run] over with a auto”, he said. But the president didn’t seem to blink: For almost 90 minutes, he fielded questions from critics like Taya Kyle, widow of late U.S. Navy Seal and American Sniper author Chris Kyle, and supporters like Mark Kelly, husband of former Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a shooting at a meeting with constituents five years ago this week.
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An hour before the broadcast, the New York Times published an op-ed written by Obama, in which he outlines the rationale behind his changes, and adding that he will only campaign a presidential candidate who supports “common-sense gun reform”.
