Obama-
"Look, here's what I believe. That the second amendment is an individual right and it means something. That people have a right to bear arms. What I also believe is that there's nothing wrong with some common sense gun safety measures. For example, that we should have strong background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, to keep them out of the hands of the mentally disabled.
We should have mechanisms to trace guns that are used in crimes back to the gun dealers that sold them to shut down supplies of illegal guns. What-So we can blame the FFL dealer instead of the criminal?
You know, that kind of thing is common sense, and it has nothing to do with the guy who has got his rifle and wants to go hunting. Now, the NRA sometimes... I'll be honest, and I'm sure there's some NRA members here... their general attitude is, 'Look, we don't want anything, and if you even breathe the word 'gun control' or 'gun safety,' then you must want to take away everybody's guns.' Well that's just not true.
What's 'true' is that the 'words' get redefined until your Dad's Marlin .22 auto becomes an 'assault rifle'. More laws are simply incremental efforts at making gun ownership such a PITA that nobody can legally accomplish it. If that's not 'infringement' of your 2A- nothing is.
But what we have to understand is that there's two realities about guns in this country. There's the reality of people who are lawfully and safely using guns for hunting and skeet shooting and protecting their families, and you've got illegal handguns being dumped in Philadelphia in the hands of teenage gang-bangers and drug dealers who are wreaking havoc and killing people.
BS- there is one reality, and it's called 'crime'.
And surely we can come up with a system that protects lawful gun owners but tries to do something about kids getting shot.
Yep...it's called 'get tough on crime'. BTW, how did you vote on that legislation, Senator?
And that's the only... that is the job of the President is to reconcile this tradition of gun ownership in this country with some basic public safety concerns.
Like hell it is. It is the job of the courts to send criminals AWAY for significant portions of their lives, and there are plenty of existing laws to do it with.
The bottom line is this: If you've got a rifle, you've got a shotgun, you've got a gun in your house, I'm not taking it away.
You at least got that right...but you're not getting my pistol either, or telling me I can't carry it in self-defense. RKBA!
Alright? So they can keep on talking about it, but this is just not true. And by the way, even if... here's another thing you've gotta understand, even if I wanted to take it away, I couldn't get it done. I don't have the votes in Congress.
...and the only reason you DON'T is because the individual members remember 1994- and know that when you finally make them mad, gun owners will hand you your a$$ at the next election. We'll also hand your yours at this one Mr. Obama, just to drive home that point.
So this is something that, if you believe that I'm the best guy when it comes to jobs, if you believe I'm the best guy when it comes to health care, if you believe that I'm the best guy on education, and that I'm going to be looking out for you and fighting for you, this can't be the reason not to vote for me. Your guns... we're not going to mess with them."
I believe you. You're not going to get the chance.