Barack Obama

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Stakeholder Meetings

March 14, 2011 by

The Huffington Post is reporting that the Obama Administration has been having informal discussions on gun control policy with both pro-gun and anti-gun groups. Supposedly spearheaded by the Justice Department, these meetings are meant to be a “feeling out process”.

“As the president said, we should focus on sound, effective steps that will keep guns out of the hands of the criminals, fugitives, people with serious mental illness, and others who have no business possessing a gun and who are prohibited by laws on the books from owning a gun,” Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. “We will be meeting with stakeholders on all sides of the issue to discuss how we can find sensible, intelligent ways to make the country safer.”

The article goes on to say that the principal aim seems to be to coalesce support for cleaning up NICS and to require background checks for private sales. Of course, they put it as the “application of background-check standards to private dealers” which is, by definition, an oxymoron as there is no such thing as a private dealer. They also note that magazine bans and the AWB are off the table for now.

Bloomberg’s Illegal Mayors and Chuck Schumer are also mentioned in the article. They compare what Obama was proposing in his op-ed to what MAIG and Schumer are seeking to do with S. 436.

“They have been meeting with us and also with law enforcement groups and industry,” one gun-control advocate said of the administration. “This is what the White House does when they want to put a serious legislative apparatus together … The game now becomes effectively demonstrating, in a way that is meaningful, what we know is the overwhelming support for universal background checks.”

Given the source, HuffPo, I’m taking this story with a grain of salt. I don’t doubt that the Obama Administration has been talking to gun-control groups and anti-gun rights politicians like Schumer, McCarthy, and Lautenberg. However, I’ll believe they are serious about working with both sides if and when reports of meetings with Wayne LaPierre, Chris Cox, and Alan Gottlieb are revealed.

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Obama Heard Us! Or Maybe Not.

March 14, 2011 by

The Brady Campaign is famous for trying to make mountains out of molehills. So it is with their release regarding President Barack Obama’s op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star which may or may not have called for background checks for private sales depending on how you read it. They are claiming that Obama heard their plea to “lead a national conversation” on gun control. Or as they put it, gun violence.

While they may want to portray it as from their lips to Obama’s ears, when you have a line in the op-ed that says, “Some will say that anything short of the most sweeping anti-gun legislation is a capitulation to the gun lobby”, I don’t think he was paying too much attention to your calls for more bans, background checks, etc.

Paul Helmke Statement Regarding President Obama’s Op-Ed On Gun Control
Mar 13, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke today issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s Sunday op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star, titled, “We Must Reach Agreement on Gun Reforms”:

“Strengthening the background check system for gun purchasers has been the signature issue for the Brady Campaign since the shooting of Jim Brady during the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan 30 years ago this month. The efforts of Jim and Sarah Brady, along with countless others, finally resulted in the Brady Law which went into effect just 17 years ago and requires federally licensed gun dealers to do background checks.

“Since that time, we have worked to make the Brady background check system more effective by strengthening the definitions of those who had already shown themselves to be too dangerous or irresponsible to own guns; by pushing for legislation to encourage states to send more records into the Brady database; and by working to close the loophole that allows private sellers to sell guns to strangers without a background check, something exploited primarily at gun shows around the country. These efforts helped lead to domestic violence abusers being blocked from buying guns and to the creation of new incentives, after Virginia Tech, for states to add their records of mentally dangerous individuals to the computer database.

“Less than a week after the shootings in Tucson, the Brady Campaign called on President Obama to lead a national conversation about preventing gun violence. With the op-ed published in the Arizona Daily Star, we believe that President Obama has heard our plea on behalf of the 100,000 Americans injured and killed by guns each year, including the more than 2,000 who have died by guns since Congresswoman Giffords and those with her were attacked on January 8. We are looking forward to working with him to engage the nation, and our Congress, on how to protect more Americans from the threat of gun violence.

“The Brady Campaign agrees with President Obama that we can stanch the bloodshed, while still respecting Second Amendment rights. We agree with him that it makes no sense for dangerous people to be able to arm themselves so easily. While more needs to be done to make our communities safer, this is the most significant statement from the White House on gun violence prevention in over a decade.

“We should all, regardless of party or ideology, be working, as the President said, on ‘preventing future bloodshed’ and forging ‘a nation worthy of our children’s futures’. “

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Bloomberg Challenges Obama On Gun Control

February 2, 2011 by 1 Comment

Michael Bloomberg, not satisfied with conspiracy to commit a felony in Arizona, is now pushing Obama on gun control according to the Washington Post.

And he is now on a media blitz to push Obama on the issue. The White House has said Obama will soon “address” the issue of gun control, but it has been vague on exactly what he will say or whether he will propose any additional funding or new laws.

“The president should stand up” on gun issues, Bloomberg said in an appearance Tuesday on “The Rachel Maddow Show.” He added, “It’s one of the issues he can build a legacy on.”

I’m not sure that Obama wants his legacy to be a one-term President.

Here is the video from the Rachel Maddow show. The discussion of gun control starts at about the one minute mark.

If any prosecutor had the gumption enough, he ought to seek an indictment of Bloomberg for conspiracy. If the private investigator buyers are non-residents of Arizona and Bloomberg funded them, no matter what his good intentions were, this is conspiracy to violate Federal gun laws which is a felony. However, I doubt any charges will ever be brought against Bloomberg.

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History Wasn’t Made

January 26, 2011 by

Yesterday, Dennis Henigan of the Brady Campaign called on President Obama to “make history on guns” in his State of the Union speech.

Since the tragic shooting in Tucson, President Obama has been a force for healing, recovery and reconciliation. As a nation, we were reeling. He steadied us. The President has been a profile in understanding and empathy.

He now needs to be a profile in courage.

In his State of the Union speech tomorrow night, he needs to talk about guns.

I can imagine the voices advising him to do nothing of the kind. They have been telling him to avoid the gun issue for two years. After Tucson, however, everything is different. Their arguments now ring especially hollow.

From my reading of the text of Obama’s State of the Union address, I don’t see the word “firearm”, “gun”, or “magazine.” I only see Gabby Giffords mentioned once and Tucson mentioned three times. I even see Forsyth Tech (aka The University of Silas Creek)* in Winston-Salem, North Carolina mentioned more than anything to do with guns.

So for poor Dennis and the rest of his fellow travelers all I can say is that history wasn’t made. Obama did listen to those other voices telling him to avoid the gun issue.

* Forsyth Technical Community College is located on Silas Creek Parkway in Winston-Salem.

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He’s Baaaaack!

January 6, 2011 by 1 Comment

Among a whole list of re-nominations sent by the White House to the Senate is that of Andrew Traver to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. I guess Obama really does think he can poke us in the eye again with this anti-gun nominee.

The website Main Justice notes that Traver’s nomination is opposed by the NRA and other gun rights groups as well as that the agency has not had a permanent director since 2006.

No word yet from the Brady Campaign on this nomination. However, Dennis Hennigan praised it last December as the beginning of the end of Obama’s “appeasement” of gun rights forces.

While I really don’t think Traver can get approved by the Senate given his record of anti-gun activism, I think his renomination actually can serve a useful purpose for gun rights. The confirmation hearings will be an opportunity to air much of ATF’s dirty laundry which has been ignored by the mainstream media. These range from gross mismanagement in the upper levels of the bureau to allegations of looking the other way to AR’s being smuggled into Mexico so that they could be traced back to the U.S.

David Codrea’s Gun Rights Examiner has a number of columns dealing with these issues as does Mike Vanderboegh’s Sipsey Street Irregulars blog. Sources within ATF are now sending substantive leaks to both of these sites because they are so disgusted with what is going on.

The dissident ATF agent website, CleanUpATF.org, is also full of details about how the bureau is being mismanaged. If one wants to get a feel for how the rank and file in the ATF are suffering under the mismanagement, this is the place to go.

Given all the dirt that can and will come out at Traver’s confirmation hearings, one must wonder if this is some sort of end game to abolish ATF which has served as lightning rod for the gun rights movement and then reconstitute its gun control functions in a less public part of the Federal bureaucracy. That would be truly Machiavellian if true!

H/T Sebastian

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Will Obama Poke Gun Owners In The Eye Again?

December 24, 2010 by 1 Comment

The Senate adjourned on December 22nd. With that adjournment, the nomination of Andrew Traver to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives fell by the wayside. The Senate neither voted to confirm nor deny his appointment so if Obama still wants Traver as Director of ATF he will need to resubmit his name to the Senate.

According to the Congressional Research Service:

Nominations Returned to the President

Nominations that are not confirmed or rejected are returned to the President at the end of a session or when the Senate adjourns or recesses for more than 30 days (Senate Rule XXXI, paragraph 6). If the President still wants a nominee considered, he must submit a new nomination to the Senate. The Senate can, however, waive this rule by unanimous consent, and it often does to allow nominations to remain “in status quo” between the first and second sessions of a Congress. The majority leader or his designee also may exempt specific nominees by name from the unanimous consent agreement, allowing them to be returned during the recess or adjournment.

Checking the Congressional Record (page S11071) for December 22nd, Andrew Traver’s nomination was specifically mentioned as being returned to the President. Along with him were a number of other nominations including many judicial nominations.

The website, Main Justice, first reported on this yesterday, noting that Traver had faced “strong opposition from the National Rifle Association.” David Codrea notes that we are not out of the woods yet in his Gun Rights Examiner column.

Gun owners dodged a bullet—but only one. Without individual senators, including nominally “pro-gun” Democrats, taking a stand and publicly opposing Traver, and without them pledging further opposition and consequences if Obama attempts a recess appointment end run, we’re not out of the woods yet.

Joe Huffman at the View from North Central Idaho offered this wry assessment of the situation.

I think this means we will have a more gun friendly Senate to review Traver’s background with the Klan Joyce Foundation.

Two questions remain regarding Andrew Traver. First, will Obama renominate him now that Rahm Emanuel is no longer Chief of Staff? As reported earlier, Emanuel was the person in the Obama White House who was pushing Traver. Without Rahm as his champion, is the controversy over Traver worth it to Obama?

The second question is whether Obama is so committed to sticking it to us “bitter clingers” that he will make Traver a recess appointment. He has until 11:59am on January 5, 2011 to make that decision. My gut reaction is that he punts and there won’t be a recess appointment. The Brady Bunch and their ilk are just not worth the bad will that would ensue.

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The Second Amendment Isn’t About Duck Hunting

December 9, 2010 by

An autograph auction house, Alexander Autographs, is auctioning a note sent by Barack Obama on White House stationary saying he supports the Second Amendment. The note was in response to a letter sent to him by a gentleman who noted how much money is raised for wildlife conservation by the sale of firearms and ammunition. The letter is included with this autographed note. You can read the full letter on the Alexander Autographs auction page above.

More on the auction and on Obama’s stance on gun rights is in a story from U.S. News and World Report’s Washington Whispers column entitled Obama Backs Gun Rights.