Dependable Erection

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Huh?

Obama win triggers run on guns in many stores
Sales of rifles, pistols and ammo are surging in parts of the United States, as many gun owners fear President-elect Barack Obama's administration may seek to tighten ownership of certain weapons.

"The day after the election, I had many more calls than usual from people looking for semi-automatic rifles," said David Greenberg, the owner of the Second Amendment Family Gun Shop, in Bisbee, Arizona, who sold out of AR-15 rifles in recent days.

"There seems to be a fear they will be banned, and it's fairly likely," he added. "Obama and Biden are driven to eliminate firearms from the face of the country."

Read the rest.

A few weeks back, i interviewed Joe Bageant, author of Deer Hunting with Jesus, for my radio program. He was in town for an early production of an adaptation of his book that David Fellerath and Katja Hill are working on for ManBites Dog Theater. One of Joe's contentions is that liberals don't know how to talk to a certain portion of the American electorate, namely rural, working class white people (he calls them rednecks), with the consequence being that rednecks often vote against their own economic interests when they should be allies with liberals, whose policies on issues like health care and education will be of benefit.

Here's the deal. I don't recall hearing anyone during the just completed election cycle talking about gun control, restricting gun owners' rights, yadda yadda yadda. It simply wasn't an issue this time around. Even after the Supreme Court struck down the Washington DC ban on handguns. Even after an 8 year old killed himself firing an Uzi at a rifle range. Even after a convicted felon fired 29 rounds through a front door and took out a 12 year old trick-or-treater on Halloween and wounded his father and brother. Obama has spoken about "common sense" actions on guns, but it's clearly not going to be a priority for either his administration or the 111th Congress. So where's the fear and panic coming from? Is there a common sense argument against making automatic weapons available to convicted felons (and apparent paranoid nutcases) like the guy in Sumter who thinks that a kid walking up his steps is a robber who can only be defended against by emptying a clip through a door? Seriously, i'd like to hear how putting in some restrictions preventing this guy from having an Uzi would jeopardize the legitimate 2nd Amendment rights of most other American citizens.

But that's beside the point. Progressives have learned that talking about guns is a losing issue, so they're really not doing it. Why is it that some folks still hear that anyway, even though no one is, you know, actually saying it?

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10 Comments:

  • While my pal Jenny and I were at Roxboro's Obama campaign office, one of the volunteers took a phone call from someone who asked, "Hey -- what is Obama's position on guns?" My pal Jenny happened to know that Obama supports 2nd Amendment rights to bear arms (if not necessarily the kind that can take out an entire neighborhood in one burst) and provided some more information for the volunteer to pass along to the caller.

    A few minutes later, I saw that the volunteer and caller were still talking, with the volunteer reading from some papers which I assume were a stack of Obama policy statements.

    Which is to say, some people were wondering as late as lunchtime on Tuesday just what Mr. Obama thought about guns.

    By Blogger Marsosudiro, at 2:17 PM  

  • Right - it just wasn't an issue in this campaign.

    But there's still a whole bunch of people who have this kneejerk "He's gonna take away my guns" reaction, for no apparent reason.

    I think some folks need to take responsibility for their opinions instead of always blaming "Democrats" or "liberals" for bad communication.

    Adding - this is pretty funny.

    By Blogger Barry, at 3:55 PM  

  • Let's see...everywhere I go, people are telling me that Obama is a baby-killer. AND he's gonna take away my guns. AND he pals around with terrorists. Of course I'm gonna buy me some more guns!

    And I'm gonna make sure my 8-year-old knows how to use them!

    By Blogger toastie, at 12:49 AM  

  • Here's what the NRA says. Obama apparently had a policy statement on guns on his website that's been scrubbed. There's nothing there at all now.

    I keep hearing that he's for 2nd amendment rights but he's now silent on the matter. You're being disingenuous if are trying to sell the idea that the Dems are not the party generally for more gun regulation.

    There has been apparently been a lot of "updating". Not long ago, his website had an initiative that was going to call for mandatory community service for all middle-school, high-school and college students. That's been scrubbed too and it's now "voluntary". Like somehow there are not enough volunteer opportunities already. The writer naively suggests education policy is handled primarily at the state and local level. I'll leave everyone here to outline how it was the Federal government imposed on the states a 55 mph national speed limit and a 0.08 (? can't remember) BAC as the drunk driving limit.

    toastie - link not working.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 7:59 AM  

  • Man, i thought the 9/11 CTers were paranoid.

    By Blogger Barry, at 9:46 AM  

  • He bet on the losing side of the recent SCOTUS case reversing the DC gun ban. He's behind the gun bans in Chicago and several parts of Illinois near Chicago (despite their inevitable fall in the wake of the Heller case). This is not to say he will be this extreme as President, but you can certainly understand why gun owners would be afraid.

    As you note progressives have given up, and they are smart to do so (I say this as a progressive myself). There are plenty of pro-gun Democrats in Congress these days, so I predict nothing will happen.

    From a purely selfish perspective, another "assault weapons" ban would make me a ton of money. During the last one I had to sell my guns due to economic necessity, and I made a killing, especially on my "pre-ban" magazines for the Glock 23 (I've since bought them back for a song).

    Which reminds me -- election season is not over! I'm up for re-election to the board of directors at the Durham County Wildlife Club (best organization name EVAH: http://dcwc.net). Wish me luck, voting starts at 1:30.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:58 AM  

  • During the last one I had to sell my guns due to economic necessity, and I made a killing, especially on my "pre-ban" magazines for the Glock 23 (I've since bought them back for a song).

    probably unintentional, but a most unfortunate choice of words, don't you think?

    Will probably come back to haunt you if you run for public office again in the future.

    By Blogger Barry, at 10:16 AM  

  • Unless otherwise noted all puns are intentional. I've said much more controversial things in the newspaper, and yes I will run again.

    The Ds and Rs both have their merits, but if I had to guess I'd say I will enter the Democratic primaries. Quite frankly it depends on fundraising.

    By Blogger KeepDurhamDifferent!, at 3:24 PM  

  • I have been informed by a reliable source, that the following was what was scrubbed from the Obama web site

    Address Gun Violence in Cities: As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn’t have them. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent, as such weapons belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets.

    It's gone now. So what's Obama's position? Does he have one he's willing to stand by from one day to the next?

    By Blogger Unknown, at 7:17 AM  

  • Dcrollins:

    Sorry I didn't know you were running for DCWC--I was there Sunday, matter of fact, over on the archery side. I don't know anything about the ins and outs of DCWC so I didn't vote.

    Did you win?

    David from Nancy St

    By Blogger David, at 5:51 PM  

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