Barack Obama On The Second Amendment

(Before It's News)

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THE POLITICAL GUIDE

Summary

President Obama has stated that he supports the second amendment. His record indicates that he is a strong supporter of reigning in firearms to prevent violence. This includes support for the assault weapons ban, support for international treaties to restrict firearms, and appointing Supreme Court Justices that are opposed to second amendment rights.

President Obama’s time in office has seen a number of high profile shootings which have triggered calls from him to limit the availability of firearms. While he has advanced no specific legislation proposals, he has voiced support for .

On the flip side, while in office President has signed separeate pieces of legislaiton that expanded gun rights. These rights include the ability of citizens to carry firearms in national parks as long as they comply with state laws, and the ability of certain passengers to carry unloaded firearms in the luggage on Amtrak trains.

Record as State Senator

In 1996, State Senator Obama answered a questionaire and stated that he supported a complete ban on assault weapons, supported mandatory waiting periods, supported background checks, and supported a complete ban on manufature and sale of handguns. Claims by Senator Obama that a staffer filed out the form were debunked by media outlets. Those same objectives were supported by State Senator Obama in a 1998 political awareness test. During a 2004 debate for the US Senate seat, Barack Obama mocked his opponent for not supporting a ban on assault weapons which he said had only one purpose: to kill people.

Record as a Senator

During Barack Obama’s time in the Senate, the subject of the second amendment was not a hot topic. He voted against a piece of legislation to prevent lawsuits against firearms companies when their weapons are used in a crime.

2008 Presidential Election

Early in the 2008 election, Senator Obama stated that he supported the DC gun ban. He stated that he believed that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms, but just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right. After the supreme court ruling which struck down the DC ban, Senator Obama stated that the ruling was still consistent with his views that the community can restrict those rights.

Senator Obama opposed the concealed carry laws which allow people to carry firearms while concealed. He has allowed for an exemption for retired cops who may need to carry a weapon to protect themselves against threats due to their service.

Meeting with Calderon

After the election and before assuming office, President-Elect Obama met with Mexican President Calderon. Such a meeting is normal when new Presidents are elected. After the meeting, the campaign released a statement that stated that the administration would do what it could to curtail weapons flowing to Mexico which sounded like they were supporting an assault weapons ban. This belief was confirmed a few months later when Attorney General Eric Holder was discussing border security and confirmed that the administration supported an assault weapons ban.

Hiring Questionnaire

As part of a questionnaire to work in the Obama administration, potential employees were asked to list any weapons they owned, the registration information, and the purpose of the weapon.

CIFTA

In 2009, President Obama called for the Senate to ratify the CIFTA treaty. That treaty would have ave allowed other countries to track US firearms, and may have prevented the reloading of ammunition by marking bullets and shells to match. The treaty was originally signed by President Clinton but was never ratified by the Senate. The President called for its ratification based upon the need to limit the flow of illegal firearms into the US.

Appointment of Sonia Sotomayor

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was appointed by President Obama in the summer of 2009. During her confirmation hearings, she stated that Heller was “settled law.” Heller was the case that declared the DC gun ban unconstitutional. Months later, she used the same arguments that the dissent used in the Heller case to support the Chicago gun ban.

Response to Gabrielle Giffords Shooting

In March of 2011, President Obama responded to the mass shooting in Tuscon, Arizona that included Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In an op-ed he wrote, the President stated that it was not acceptable that a man who was rejected by the Army for service and by colleges for education was capable of purchasing a firearm. He went on to outline a proposed plan that included stronger enforcement of already existing firearms laws, working to ensure that a background check system is in place so that all people purchasing a gun can be checked against criminal and mental illness lists, and rewarding states that do the best job of providing data as they are doing the best job of protecting their citizens.

Response to Aurora, Colorado Shooting

In July of 2009, President Obama responded to the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado by stating that AK-47s and similar weapons belonged in the hands of soldiers and not in the hands of criminals and on an battlefield rather than the streets.

New Reporting Rules

In July of 2011, the Justice Department issued new rules outside of law to require gun store to report sales of more than one rifle to one person, provided the caliber for those rifles is more than .22. The new rules applied only to border states along the border with Mexico.

Fast and Furious

Some time in 2009, the Obama administration started a program to allows weapons to be legally purchased in the US and then shipped to Mexico with the intent of tracing those weapons back to drug cartel leaders once they were used in a crime. One of those weapons was used to kill a border patrol agent. We are working on a controversy page for this item and hope to have it up soon.

Assault weapons bans and overall gun bans

In 1996, State Senate hopeful Obama filled out a questionaire from a Chicago nonprofit, Independent Voters of Illinois. He gave these responses:

35. Do you support state legislation to:
a. ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns? Yes.
b. ban assault weapons? Yes.
c. mandatory waiting periods and background checks? Yes.

Despite the fact that his campaign said Obama did not fill out the questionnaires–a staffer did–and that he may have jotted some notes on the front page of the questionnaire, Factcheck.org has found that the writing on the form was that of Obama’s.

In July of 1998, Obama supported the following goals on the State Legislative National Political Awareness test:

• Ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
• Increase state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
• Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks with firearms

In October 2000, State Senator Obama co-sponsored legislation in the Illinois Senate to limit handgun purchases to one per month. The legislation did not pass.

While debating Mr. Alan Keyes during the Illinois Senate campaign in 2004, State Senator Obama described the fact that President Bush did not re-institute an assault weapons ban as a scandal.

Let’s be honest. Mr. Keyes does not believe in common gun control measures like the assault weapons bill. Mr. Keyes does not believe in any limits from what I can tell with respect to the possession of guns, including assault weapons that have only one purpose, to kill people. I think it is a scandal that this president did not authorize a renewal of the assault weapons ban.

Concealed carry

In April of 2004 State Senator Obama voted to allow retired cops to carry a concealed weapon, noting that their previous job provided them with training. He was criticized by gun control advocates and when discussing the vote, State Senator Obama had the following to say:

I am consistently on record and will continue to be on record as opposing concealed carry. This was a narrow exception in an exceptional circumstance where a retired police officer might find himself vulnerable as a consequence of the work he has previously done–and had been trained extensively in the proper use of firearms.

D.C. Gun Ban

In February of 2008, in a primary interview, Senator Obama was asked about the D.C. gun ban and made the following remarks:

Q: You said recently, “I have no intention of taking away folks’ guns.” But you support the D.C. handgun ban, and you’ve said that it’s constitutional. How do you reconcile those two positions?

A: Because I think we have two conflicting traditions in this country. I think it’s important for us to recognize that we’ve got a tradition of handgun ownership and gun ownership generally. And a lot of law-abiding citizens use it for hunting, for sportsmanship, and for protecting their families. We also have a violence on the streets that is the result of illegal handgun usage. And so I think there is nothing wrong with a community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the streets. And cracking down on the various loopholes that exist in terms of background checks for children, the mentally ill. We can have reasonable, thoughtful gun control measure that I think respect the Second Amendment and people’s traditions.

At the presidential debate in Philadelphia in April of 2008, Senator Obama was again asked about the legality of the gun ban that the city of Washington D.C. had in place.

Q: Is the D.C. law prohibiting ownership of handguns consistent with an individual’s right to bear arms?

A: As a general principle, I believe that the Constitution confers an individual right to bear arms. But just because you have an individual right does not mean that the state or local government can’t constrain the exercise of that right, in the same way that we have a right to private property but local governments can establish zoning ordinances that determine how you can use it.

Q: But do you still favor the registration & licensing of guns?

A: I think we can provide common-sense approaches to the issue of illegal guns that are ending up on the streets. We can make sure that criminals don’t have guns in their hands. We can make certain that those who are mentally deranged are not getting a hold of handguns. We can trace guns that have been used in crimes to unscrupulous gun dealers that may be selling to straw purchasers and dumping them on the streets.

In June of 2008, Senator Obama was asked about his previous statements on the constitutionality of the D.C. in the aftermath of the recent supreme court decision to overturn the law. In the response to that question, Senator Obama remarked that he never claimed that the law was constitutional.

Q: In November, you had mentioned that the DC handgun law was constitutional, now you’re embracing the supreme court’s 5-4 decision striking down that law?

A: That’s not what I said back in November.

Q: Your aide had mentioned something about that

A: i don’t know what my aide said, but I have been very consistent, I teach constitutional law and what I said was that I believe in the second amendment as being an individual right and have said that consistently, I also think that that individual right is constrained by the community to maintain issues of public safety. I don’t think that those two principles are contradictory, and in fact what I have been saying consistently is what the supreme court essentially said today. The D.C. law may have been struck down, but they also affirmed the right for local communities to engage in background checks and other common sense laws that most lawful gun owners would agree with. 

Meeting with Calderon

Just before assuming office, President-Elect Obama met with Mexican President Calderon. In a press statement released by the campaign, the President-Elect pledged to prevent the flow of wweapons to Mexico and seemed to endorse an assault weapons ban.

On security, President-elect Obama underscored his interest in finding ways to work together to reduce drug-related violence. He applauded the steps that President Calderón has taken to improve security in Mexico and expressed his on-going support for the valuable work being done under the Mérida Initiative. President-elect Obama believes the cooperation under the Mérida Initiative can be a building block for a deeper relationship. President-elect Obama expressed support for efforts in the border states in both the United States and Mexico to eradicate drug-related violence and stop the flow of guns and cash. He told President Calderón that he intends to ask the Secretary of Homeland Security to lead an effort to increase information sharing to strengthen those efforts. He pledged to take more effective action from the United States to stem the flow of arms from the United States to Mexico.

Holder Confirms Assault Weapons Belief

Shortly after assuming office, Attorney General Eric Holder was discussing the capture of several drug gang members and began to disuss the need to address weapons. In doing so, he was asked about a possible assautl weapons ban and confirmed that the Obama administration would support such a law.

Well, as President Obama indicated during the campaign, there are just a few gun-related changes that we would like to make, and among them would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons. I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.

Hiring Questionnaire

As part of the hiring process to become a worker in the Obama administration, applicants were asked if they or anyone else in their families owned a gun. They were then asked the purpose of the weapon and the registration information.

(59) Do you or any members of your immediate family own a gun? If so, provide complete ownership and registration information. Has the registration ever lapsed? Please also describe how and by whom it is used and whether it has been the cause of any personal injuries or property damage.

CIFTA

In April of 2009, the White House issued a press statement noting a recent trip by the President to the Summit of the Americas. As part of that statement, the President called for the Senate to pass CIFTA, the Convention on Illicit Trafficking in Firearms Convention. The measure was addressed as part of the need to curtail the flow of illegal arms into the US.

Citizen Safety

Public safety and crime are among the top concerns of citizens throughout the region. President Obama emphasized the need for partnerships that address this issue, focusing on our co-responsibility to address threats to public safety.

Firearms Trafficking: The United States must do more to reduce the number of illegal firearms which flow to Latin America and the Caribbean. President Obama announced his commitment to seek ratification of the Convention on Illicit Trafficking in Firearms Convention (CIFTA) in 2009, and offering technical assistance to trace illicit firearms and control, store, or destroy excess national stockpiles.

In May of 2009, President Obama made a speech in which he urged the Senate to pass a treaty which would have allowed other countries to track US firearms, and may have prevented the reloading of ammunition by marking bullets and shells to match.

Arizona Daily Star

In March of 2011, President Obama wrote an op-ed reacting to the mass shooting of several people in Tuscon, Arizona, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. In that op-ed, shown in full below, President Obama calls for several new measures to prevent criminals and mentally unstable people from owning a gun.

President Obama: We must seek agreement on gun reforms

March 13, 2011 12:00 am • President Barack Obama Special To The Arizona Daily Star

It’s been more than two months since the tragedy in Tucson stunned the nation. It was a moment when we came together as one people to mourn and to pray for those we lost. And in the attack’s turbulent wake, Americans by and large rightly refrained from finger-pointing, assigning blame or playing politics with other people’s pain.

But one clear and terrible fact remains. A man our Army rejected as unfit for service; a man one of our colleges deemed too unstable for studies; a man apparently bent on violence, was able to walk into a store and buy a gun.

He used it to murder six people and wound 13 others. And if not for the heroism of bystanders and a brilliant surgical team, it would have been far worse.

But since that day, we have lost perhaps another 2,000 members of our American family to

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gun violence. Thousands more have been wounded. We lose the same number of young people to guns every day and a half as we did at Columbine, and every four days as we did at Virginia Tech.

Every single day, America is robbed of more futures. It has awful consequences for our society. And as a society, we have a responsibility to do everything we can to put a stop to it.

Now, like the majority of Americans, I believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. And the courts have settled that as the law of the land. In this country, we have a strong tradition of gun ownership that’s handed from generation to generation. Hunting and shooting are part of our national heritage. And, in fact, my administration has not curtailed the rights of gun owners – it has expanded them, including allowing people to carry their guns in national parks and wildlife refuges.

The fact is, almost all gun owners in America are highly responsible. They’re our friends and neighbors. They buy their guns legally and use them safely, whether for hunting or target shooting, collection or protection. And that’s something that gun-safety advocates need to accept. Likewise, advocates for gun owners should accept the awful reality that gun violence affects Americans everywhere, whether on the streets of Chicago or at a supermarket in Tucson.

I know that every time we try to talk about guns, it can reinforce stark divides. People shout at one another, which makes it impossible to listen. We mire ourselves in stalemate, which makes it impossible to get to where we need to go as a country.

However, I believe that if common sense prevails, we can get beyond wedge issues and stale political debates to find a sensible, intelligent way to make the United States of America a safer, stronger place.

I’m willing to bet that responsible, law-abiding gun owners agree that we should be able to keep an irresponsible, law-breaking few – dangerous criminals and fugitives, for example – from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.

I’m willing to bet they don’t think that using a gun and using common sense are incompatible ideas – that we should check someone’s criminal record before he can check out at a gun seller; that an unbalanced man shouldn’t be able to buy a gun so easily; that there’s room for us to have reasonable laws that uphold liberty, ensure citizen safety and are fully compatible with a robust Second Amendment.

That’s why our focus right now should be on sound and effective steps that will actually keep those irresponsible, law-breaking few from getting their hands on a gun in the first place.

• First, we should begin by enforcing laws that are already on the books. The National Instant Criminal Background Check System is the filter that’s supposed to stop the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun. Bipartisan legislation four years ago was supposed to strengthen this system, but it hasn’t been properly implemented. It relies on data supplied by states – but that data is often incomplete and inadequate. We must do better.
• Second, we should in fact reward the states that provide the best data – and therefore do the most to protect our citizens.
• Third, we should make the system faster and nimbler. We should provide an instant, accurate, comprehensive and consistent system for background checks to sellers who want to do the right thing, and make sure that criminals can’t escape it.

Porous background checks are bad for police officers, for law-abiding citizens and for the sellers themselves. If we’re serious about keeping guns away from someone who’s made up his mind to kill, then we can’t allow a situation where a responsible seller denies him a weapon at one store, but he effortlessly buys the same gun someplace else.

Clearly, there’s more we can do to prevent gun violence. But I want this to at least be the beginning of a new discussion on how we can keep America safe for all our people.

I know some aren’t interested in participating. Some will say that anything short of the most sweeping anti-gun legislation is a capitulation to the gun lobby. Others will predictably cast any discussion as the opening salvo in a wild-eyed scheme to take away everybody’s guns. And such hyperbole will become the fodder for overheated fundraising letters.

But I have more faith in the American people than that. Most gun-control advocates know that most gun owners are responsible citizens. Most gun owners know that the word “commonsense” isn’t a code word for “confiscation.” And none of us should be willing to remain passive in the face of violence or resigned to watching helplessly as another rampage unfolds on television.

As long as those whose lives are shattered by gun violence don’t get to look away and move on, neither can we.

We owe the victims of the tragedy in Tucson and the countless unheralded tragedies each year nothing less than our best efforts – to seek consensus, to prevent future bloodshed, to forge a nation worthy of our children’s futures.

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Permanent Policy

On July 11, 2011 the Justice Department released a press statement noting that it would be making new reporting requirements permanent for the border states of Texas, New Mexico, California, and Arizona. It cites the increased border violence in that region and the need to track weapons that may go into Mexico. The rule requires that all gun salesmen report any sale of long rifles greater than .22 caliber.

Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMonday, July 11, 2011
Statement of Deputy Attorney General James Cole Regarding Information Requests for Multiple Sales of Semi-Automatic Rifles with Detachable Magazines

WASHINGTON – Deputy Attorney General James Cole issued the following statement today regarding information requests for multiple sales of semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines in select states along the Southwest Border:

“The international expansion and increased violence of transnational criminal networks pose a significant threat to the United States. Federal, state and foreign law enforcement agencies have determined that certain types of semi-automatic rifles – greater than .22 caliber and with the ability to accept a detachable magazine – are highly sought after by dangerous drug trafficking organizations and frequently recovered at violent crime scenes near the Southwest Border. This new reporting measure — tailored to focus only on multiple sales of these types of rifles to the same person within a five-day period — will improve the ability of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to detect and disrupt the illegal weapons trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce to criminals and criminal organizations. These targeted information requests will occur in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to help confront the problem of illegal gun trafficking into Mexico and along the Southwest Border.

National Urban League Speech

In July of 2012, President Obama spoke in New Orleans, Louisiana at the National Urban League. In that speech, he responded to the recent mass shooting in Aurora, Colorada in which more than a dozen people were murdered by a lone gunman and dozens more were critically injured. In that speech, President Obama stated that criminals should not have access to weapons such as an AK-47. Note than an AR-15 model weapon was used in the crime.

I, like most Americans, believe that the Second Amendment guarantees the individual the right to bear arms. That we recognize the traditions of gun ownership that have been passed on from generation to generation. That hunting and shooting are part of a … cherished national heritage. But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers and not in the hands of criminals. that they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities.

Voting Record

Amendment – US aid and gun registration

In September 2007, the US Senate voted on an amendment submitted by Senator Vitter of Louisiana. The amendment sought to prohibit the use of funds by international organizations, agencies, and entities that require the registration of, or taxes guns owned by citizens of the United States. The amendment got the support of almost all Republicans and about 2/3 of the Democrats to pass in a 81-10 vote. Barack Obama cast a “No Vote”

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act

In 2005, the US Senate voted on S 397 – The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. The act sought to protect gun manufacturers, retailers, and suppliers from being sued for crimes or accidents involving the weapons they sold or manufactured. The legislation came to a vote in July of 2005 and passed the Senate with a vote of 65-31. Barack Obama voted against the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

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