The National Rifle Association may have opted to sit out on CNN’s televised town hall with President Obama on Thursday night, but that didn’t stop the organization from tuning in. Gun violence has prompted some of President Obama’s most intense public emotion, including at a memorial after a Charleston, South Carolina, church shooting last June and after an OR community college shooting last October.
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CNN’s Anderson Cooper fielded questions to the president, offering an opportunity for both gun rights advocates and gun control proponents to discuss one of the nation’s most controversial issues. He said the NRA refused to acknowledge the government’s responsibility to make legal products safer, citing seatbelts and child-proof medicine bottles as examples. “They are just down the street”.
“I’ve been very good for gun manufacturers”, he said.
Obama said that he’s never owned a gun but said that doesn’t mean he he’s spearheading a “conspiracy” to take away other Americans’ constitutional right to purchase firearms.
Ahead of the town hall, Obama put political candidates on notice that he would refuse to support or campaign for anyone who “does not support common-sense gun reform” – including Democrats.
He said the NRA was invited to the town hall but declined to participate.
“Even as I continue to take every action possible as president, I will also take every action I can as a citizen”, he wrote.
Still, questions were raised on the effectiveness of his proposals, which include an executive order clarifying the definition of who is in the business of selling guns and therefore subject to licensing and to performing background checks on gun buyers.
The president says 90 percent of Americans support such reform and that if they join him, the USA “will elect the leadership we deserve”.
“And she was absolutely right”.
The poll also showed that 53 percent said they disapprove of Obama’s handling of gun policy while 43 percent approve. “I’m only going to be here for another year”, adding that he has “been president for over seven years and gun sales don’t seem to have suffered during that time”. The president said this was a misconception, and blamed critics of gun control for having “mischaracterized” his position.
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In an editorial in The New York Times published on Thursday evening, Obama stressed the need for “common-sense” gun laws and gave a warning to the next election’s crop of candidates.
