Barack Obama endorsed an assault weapons ban Tuesday night at the debate. The question was likely intended to be a "gotcha" for Mitt Romney over what the law in Massachusetts was when Romney was Governor, but Obama got caught in the trap. He called for a reinstatement of the unpopular assault weapons ban and seemed to be hinting about a need for a "cheap handgun" ban. The NRA is fired up and launching a series of battleground state ads and mailings. An assault weapons ban would ban the AR-15. This is one of the most popular hunting rifles in America.
David Keene, president of the NRA, told
Secrets, "the president has ratified what we have been saying" in ads
and mailings to pro-gun voters. "See, he peeked out and finally said
what he wants," said Keene.
In his 2008 campaign and while president,
Obama has distanced himself from gun issues, aware that it could hurt
him politically in key battleground states. But when pressed about gun
violence during the Tuesday town hall-style presidential debate, he
fully embraced a Clinton-style assault weapons ban. Clinton's ban
expired in 2004.
Suggesting a ban not just on semi-automatic
weapons like the AR-15 but maybe even handguns, the most popular rifle
in America, the president said, "What I'm trying to do is to get a
broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally. Part
of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced. But
part of it is also looking at other sources of the violence. Because
frankly, in my hometown of Chicago, there's an awful lot of violence and
they're not using AK-47s. They're using cheap handguns."
Keene said that Obama's statement was a
"strategic error on his part" because it blew up the president's
pro-Second Amendment rhetoric. "He knows it's politically dangerous to
take on the Second Amendment," said Keene.
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