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Obama Gun Rights Record: Is it Different From the Candidate’s Position? 

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Understanding the Obama gun rights record means looking at his time as a candidate for the office of President of the United States, when Obama said he believes the individual has a right to bear arms, as a general principle based on the Constitution. 

Obama did add that he thought government entities should be able to constrain the right to bear arms, with the intention of maintaining public safety.

His proposals as a candidate included using common sense and taking steps to prevent criminals from having guns. 

Some have gone to great lengths to prove that the Obama record on handguns particularly is much more restrictive than the policies he gave voice to during the campaign.

The evidence presented includes a document on which Obama wrote answers to some questions about the possession and use of handguns. 

When discussing the gun ownership issue and the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, the Obama gun rights record introduces some nuances into the discussion. 

He maintains his stance that law-abiding people should be able to have guns and use them for hunting and for family protection.

However, he expresses concern for the violence on the streets and said he saw nothing wrong with a community saying, as a group, that it would take guns off the streets. 

Pro-gun groups state, as fact, that Obama’s voting record against judges and against pro-gun legislation show that his candidate’s stance is significantly different from what the country can expect from Obama as President.

These groups also note that Obama favors licensing and gun registration, which the organizations see as anti-Second Amendment. 

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Candidate Position Becomes Policy?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emFOX9CbrEY&feature=emb_logo

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Who Works with the President?

One group, the Buckeye Firearms Association, points to the nomination of Eric Holder for Attorney General as an alarming move for gun owners in the United States. 

According to this group, Holder signed onto a court brief that supported the ban of handguns in the District of Columbia. 

The association fears that this record, not only from Obama but also from Holder, should be of concern to gun owners, because Holder as Attorney General acts as the top law enforcement official in the country. 

The gun-owner proponents from Ohio emphasize that the policies that Obama said he would work for if elected President will not be the same now that he occupies the White House. 

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Buy Your Guns Now!

Followers of the Second Amendment issue have expressed additional concern about the relationship between the Obama Presidency and the Obama gun rights record. 

In fact, the concern of pro-gun ownership groups has prompted many individual members to purchase firearms in the last two months of 2008 and in the first weeks of 2009. 

This rush to stock up on firearms is motivated by the fear that, with Obama and Holder in control of the reins, purchasing firearms will be more difficult in the near future, if not impossible over the course of a few years. 

Groups who are widely recognized as pro-gun ownership also point to Obama’s membership in the Joyce Foundation, which the pro-gun groups state is a major source of funds for anti-gun movements. 

Obama’s record also includes an effort to raise the taxes on both guns and ammunition to a level that would make purchasing the items difficult for some and impossible for many. 

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Even my Hunting Guns?

Records indicate that Barack Obama, while a legislator, voted to stop Illinois residents from owning black-powder rifles and shotguns for hunting. 

This part of the Obama gun rights record is an extreme position, according to those who are adamantly opposed to any restrictions not specifically mentioned in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

Some writers who are also strong proponents of individual gun ownership feel that Obama, like other politicians, has switched or will switch directions from that he supposedly followed during the campaign. 

Some go so far as to state that there is a large group of legislators and advisers who want to restructure the Second Amendment altogether or eliminate it from the Constitution because these anti-gun groups supposedly feel that society has changed enough to warrant different rules. 

This mixture of allowing law-abiding people to have guns while controlling the ownership of guns for others is sometimes referred to as an impossible compromise.

It is certain that the debate between the administration, based on the Obama gun rights record, and the pro-gun lobby will only heat up as time goes on.

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