Post by cthulhukitty on Jan 7, 2009 14:10:01 GMT -6
www.herald-dispatch.com/opinions/x311079285/Our-gun-ownership-rights-could-disappear-under-Obama
Mark Caserta: Our gun ownership rights could disappear under Obama
December 12, 2008 @ 08:20 PM
The Herald-Dispatch
Barack Obama's position on gun control has many folks concerned.
The Second Amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
In 1994, Bill Clinton imposed a ban on several types of military-style automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines; however, the ban was allowed to lapse in 2004. According to CNN.com, Barack Obama has proposed restoring the ban and requiring background checks for buyers at gun shows along with other "common sense measures."
What common sense measures?
Bob Novak of the Washington Post calls it "Obama's Second Amendment Dance."
In a response to Novak's inquiry about Obama's specific position on gun control during the election, Obama's campaign e-mailed him a one-paragraph answer: Obama believes that while the "Second Amendment creates an individual right ... he also believes that the Constitution permits federal, state and local government to adopt reasonable and common-sense gun safety measures."
A 1996 questionnaire filled out by Barack Obama while running for the Illinois Senate showed he promised to support a ban on the "manufacture, sale and possession of handguns." His staff would later claim they filled it out and he was unaware of the answer.
The NRA, referencing a 1999 article in a Chicago newspaper, said Obama would support a huge new tax on guns and ammo and claimed the then-state senator promoted a plan to increase federal taxes by 500 percent on the sales of firearms and ammunition.
Many weapons dealers in the United States are reporting sharply higher sales since Barack Obama won the presidency.
FBI figures for the week of Nov. 3-9 showed the bureau received more than 374,000 requests for background checks on gun purchasers -- nearly a 49 percent increase over the same period in 2007.
Bernie Conaster, owner of a gun shop in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Manassas, Va., has never seen business this good and says sales have doubled or tripled since this time last year.
"I have been in business for 12 years, and I was here for Y2K, Sept. 11, Katrina ... And all of those were big events, and we did notice a spike in business, but nothing on the order of what we are seeing right now," he told CNN.
Both buyers and sellers attribute the sales surge to concerns that Obama and his Democratic-controlled Congress will move to restrict firearm ownership.
While speaking to reporters following the fatal shooting on the campus of Northern Illinois University, Obama was quoted as saying that our country must do "whatever it takes" to eradicate gun violence from the nation's streets and schools. He called for strengthening background checks and bolstering law enforcement officials' ability to trace weapons.
I agree guns should not be given to everyone; the problem is that criminals rarely submit themselves to background checks.
The future of the Second Amendment under the Obama administration is unclear; however, the Constitution is not.
Law-abiding citizens must retain the right to keep and bear arms.
Mark Caserta is a Cabell County resident and a frequent contributor to The Herald- Dispatch editorial page.
Mark Caserta: Our gun ownership rights could disappear under Obama
December 12, 2008 @ 08:20 PM
The Herald-Dispatch
Barack Obama's position on gun control has many folks concerned.
The Second Amendment reads: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
In 1994, Bill Clinton imposed a ban on several types of military-style automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines; however, the ban was allowed to lapse in 2004. According to CNN.com, Barack Obama has proposed restoring the ban and requiring background checks for buyers at gun shows along with other "common sense measures."
What common sense measures?
Bob Novak of the Washington Post calls it "Obama's Second Amendment Dance."
In a response to Novak's inquiry about Obama's specific position on gun control during the election, Obama's campaign e-mailed him a one-paragraph answer: Obama believes that while the "Second Amendment creates an individual right ... he also believes that the Constitution permits federal, state and local government to adopt reasonable and common-sense gun safety measures."
A 1996 questionnaire filled out by Barack Obama while running for the Illinois Senate showed he promised to support a ban on the "manufacture, sale and possession of handguns." His staff would later claim they filled it out and he was unaware of the answer.
The NRA, referencing a 1999 article in a Chicago newspaper, said Obama would support a huge new tax on guns and ammo and claimed the then-state senator promoted a plan to increase federal taxes by 500 percent on the sales of firearms and ammunition.
Many weapons dealers in the United States are reporting sharply higher sales since Barack Obama won the presidency.
FBI figures for the week of Nov. 3-9 showed the bureau received more than 374,000 requests for background checks on gun purchasers -- nearly a 49 percent increase over the same period in 2007.
Bernie Conaster, owner of a gun shop in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Manassas, Va., has never seen business this good and says sales have doubled or tripled since this time last year.
"I have been in business for 12 years, and I was here for Y2K, Sept. 11, Katrina ... And all of those were big events, and we did notice a spike in business, but nothing on the order of what we are seeing right now," he told CNN.
Both buyers and sellers attribute the sales surge to concerns that Obama and his Democratic-controlled Congress will move to restrict firearm ownership.
While speaking to reporters following the fatal shooting on the campus of Northern Illinois University, Obama was quoted as saying that our country must do "whatever it takes" to eradicate gun violence from the nation's streets and schools. He called for strengthening background checks and bolstering law enforcement officials' ability to trace weapons.
I agree guns should not be given to everyone; the problem is that criminals rarely submit themselves to background checks.
The future of the Second Amendment under the Obama administration is unclear; however, the Constitution is not.
Law-abiding citizens must retain the right to keep and bear arms.
Mark Caserta is a Cabell County resident and a frequent contributor to The Herald- Dispatch editorial page.