...Like many of Obama’s contradictions, his stated belief in the individual rights view of the Second Amendment is at odds with his support for DC’s categorical ban on handguns. That law is currently being challenged in District of Columbia v. Heller, now pending before the Supreme Court. Fifty five senators and 250 house members (including many Democrats in both chambers) signed a brief in that case supporting the individual rights view. Obama was not one of them.And now we know why. As has been reported all week, in 1996 Obama filled out a candidate questionnaire where he revealed his true beliefs on all sorts of subjects, from abortion to school choice.
One question that has not gotten much attention, however, asks if Obama supports legislation to, “ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns.” His one-word answer—uncommonly direct and lacking the flowery eloquence we’ve come to expect from him—was “Yes.”
His answer could cost him the presidency. Since gun control became a partisan political issue in the late 1960s, the only two Democrats to win the White House (Carter and Clinton) have done so by portraying themselves to America as moderate, “common-sense” politicians in sync with Middle America. Supporting an absolute ban on owning any pistol or revolver is at odds with a vast super-majority of Americans, and shows Barack Obama to be far outside the mainstream of American politics.
National Democrat leaders don’t support an absolute ban on handguns. Some far-left politicians from liberal strongholds such as San Francisco, Chicago (where Obama is from) and New York City may tout such extremist measures, but not anyone trying to carry Pennsylvania, Michigan or Ohio in a presidential election. The last time a Democrat nominee supported a ban on handguns was Michael Dukakis, and we all know how that election ended.
Millions of hard-working voters in swing states like Pennsylvania are staunch gun owners. Many of them don’t have a problem with what some people call “reasonable regulations” on guns, but when you start talking about banning guns outright, they vote against you. Barack Obama is now on record with just such a radical agenda...
(Source: Sandy Froman's Town Hall column, April 4. Froman is the immediate past president of the National Rifle Association of America.)
