He hasn't changed his mind due to the Heller decision and that is the point of conversation now isn't it?
He believes that it's an individual right, but one that should have the lowest level of scrutiny so that the Govt. can regulate it out of common practice.
No CCW except for ex cops
No Handguns.
No semiautomatic rifles.
The ability to sue the gun industry out of existence for criminals that misuse their products (but not automakers or cell phone suppliers, etc.)
One gun per month
Close gun shops in Cook County
Voted against exempting from prosecution people who violate local hand gun bans in self defense cases.
Served on the board of the Joyce foundation, the driving force behind the gun control movement in the US
Long list. About as anti 2nd Amendment as you can get in a candidate. Gun control is a Democratic issue in Illinois so a lot of record on this for a change. And yet, for a guy who never met a pro gun control issue he didn’t like, who firmly believes you and I should not own handguns, he’s mighty quiet on the Heller decision.
This quote from his web site is remarkable
Respect the Second Amendment: Millions of hunters own and use guns each year. Millions more participate in a variety of shooting sports such as sporting clays, skeet, target and trap shooting that may not necessarily involve hunting. As a former constitutional law professor, Barack Obama believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, and he greatly respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms. He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting. He also believes that the right is subject to reasonable and commonsense regulation.
Wow, which Constitution did he teach?
How about this Individual Rights position:
John Lott, a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, relates this chilling encounter in an opinion piece dealing with a questionnaire Obama and/or his staff answered for the Independent Voters of Illinois (IVI):
In fact, I knew Obama during the mid-1990s, and his answers to IVI’s question on guns fit well with the Obama that I knew. Indeed, the first time I introduced myself to him he said “Oh, you are the gun guy.”
I responded “Yes, I guess so.” He simply responded that “I don’t believe that people should be able to own guns.”
When I said it might be fun to talk about the question sometime and about his support of the city of Chicago’s lawsuit against the gun makers, he simply grimaced and turned away, ending the conversation.
So yeah, Obama hasn't changed his mind since Heller. He still believes the 2nd is an individual right, undoubtedly a major mistake on the part of the framers, and a right that virtually no one should be allowed to exercise in all but the most limited manner. Unlike the rest of the BOR. Of course, like any typical politician he does not come out and tell the full story. I will give McCain credit for that, not that it will hurt him by doing so.
Charon
