deepdiver
Campaign Veteran
imported post
We all know that Barack Obama is an unreasonable gun-grabber who, no matter what he says, has zero respect for the protections of the Second Amendment. I thought I knew most all of his history against firearms, but this was new info to me. It truly frightens me that maybe he doesn't respect the other 9 either. While the "other side" has had their fair share of abuses I am beyond not happy with, I honestly don't know that this nation can survive, with any semblence of what we know it to be, an Obama presidency. Scares the hell out of me.
From the Wallstreet Journal
Five Mile Road
By JAMES TARANTO
June 10, 2008
Back in April, columnist Robert Novak noted that Barack Obama was performing a "dance" on the topic of gun rights:
The proposal Obama endorsed in 1999 would have banned gun stores within five miles, or 26,400 feet, of a school. Imagine the same maps with each of those circles 10 miles across. Gun stores would be permitted only in the most remote rural areas--and only if there is also no park within five miles.
The Defender article also reported that Obama proposed "to make it a felony for a gun owner whose firearm was stolen from his residence which causes harm to another person if that weapon was not securely stored in that home." This sentence is clumsily worded, but it seems to be saying that if someone breaks into your house, steals your gun, and uses it to rob a liquor store, Obama would send you to prison for failing to store it "securely."
To be sure, these are positions Obama took as a state legislator. It is unlikely that he would stand by them today, and even unlikelier that Congress would enact them. But it does lead one to think that Obama's instinct is to trash, rather than protect, the Constitution.
*I strongly encourage people to click on the Alan Korwin and downtown Cleveland links above. The maps are quite informative.
We all know that Barack Obama is an unreasonable gun-grabber who, no matter what he says, has zero respect for the protections of the Second Amendment. I thought I knew most all of his history against firearms, but this was new info to me. It truly frightens me that maybe he doesn't respect the other 9 either. While the "other side" has had their fair share of abuses I am beyond not happy with, I honestly don't know that this nation can survive, with any semblence of what we know it to be, an Obama presidency. Scares the hell out of me.
From the Wallstreet Journal
Five Mile Road
By JAMES TARANTO
June 10, 2008
Back in April, columnist Robert Novak noted that Barack Obama was performing a "dance" on the topic of gun rights:
Obama, disagreeing with the D.C. government and gun control advocates, declares that the Second Amendment's "right of the people to keep and bear arms" applies to individuals, not just the "well regulated militia" in the amendment. In the next breath, he asserts that this constitutional guarantee does not preclude local "common sense" restrictions on firearms.
The government of the District of Columbia is defending a gun ban before the Supreme Court, with a decision expected this month. The National Rifle Association Web site has a list of those "common sense" restrictions Obama has favored. One of them caught the eye of blogger David Hardy:Barack Obama supported a proposal to ban gun stores within 5 miles of a school or park, which would eliminate almost every gun store in America.
The reference is to a post by David Bernstein of The Volokh Conspiracy, which quotes from a Chicago Defender article of Dec.13, 1999:He's proposing that all federally licensed gun dealers sell firearms in a storefront and not from their homes while banning their business from being within five miles of a school or a park.
Five miles? As Hardy notes, the effect of this would be to "eliminate almost every gun store in America." Alan Korwin, a Phoenix-based gun-rights advocate, has a series of maps of his hometown, showing areas that are "gun-free school zones" under a federal law that bans possession of firearms within 1,000 feet of a school. Phoenix is a sprawling city; to show the effect of such restrictions on an older, denser town, Korwin also has a map of downtown Cleveland, which shows dense concentrations of 2,000-foot-diameter circles.The proposal Obama endorsed in 1999 would have banned gun stores within five miles, or 26,400 feet, of a school. Imagine the same maps with each of those circles 10 miles across. Gun stores would be permitted only in the most remote rural areas--and only if there is also no park within five miles.
The Defender article also reported that Obama proposed "to make it a felony for a gun owner whose firearm was stolen from his residence which causes harm to another person if that weapon was not securely stored in that home." This sentence is clumsily worded, but it seems to be saying that if someone breaks into your house, steals your gun, and uses it to rob a liquor store, Obama would send you to prison for failing to store it "securely."
To be sure, these are positions Obama took as a state legislator. It is unlikely that he would stand by them today, and even unlikelier that Congress would enact them. But it does lead one to think that Obama's instinct is to trash, rather than protect, the Constitution.
*I strongly encourage people to click on the Alan Korwin and downtown Cleveland links above. The maps are quite informative.