Obama Comes Out Against Concealed Carry
By Amanda Carpenter
Thursday, April 3, 2008


Barack Obama is embracing anti-gun policies in the run-up to a Democratic presidential debate scheduled on the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.

"I am not in favor of concealed weapons," Obama told the Pittsburgh Tribune. "I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations."

These remarks break from Obama's previous moderate rhetoric on gun control.

While campaigning in Idaho in February, Obama promised, "I have no intention of taking away folks' guns."

Obama elaborated later that month in a political forum sponsored by ABC News and the Politico. He said: "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 respects the Second Amendment and people's traditions."

Obama's tough talk on gun control may be prompted by Philadelphia-based Democratic leaders who are pressuring Clinton and Obama to adopt harder stances on gun control. This issue is expected to come up in ABC News' Democratic debate on April 16 in Philadelphia. 32 people were shot to death on the campus of Virginia Tech by Seung-Hui Cho April 16, 2007.

Obama's new hardline liberal position differs from his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and GOP candidate John McCain, who both are for concealed-carry.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said in a statement Obama should apologize and revise his stance. "Barack Obama ignorantly believes that legally-armed Americans are as reckless and irresponsible as the criminals with whom his political sympathies evidently law," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "He has been insisting for months he supports the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, but here he is now campaigning in Pennsylvania, stating essentially he would prefers Americans not exercise that right."



[i]Amanda Carpenter is National Political Reporter for Townhall.com.
http://townhall.com/columnists/AmandaCarpe...concealed_carry

[/i]

The actual fact is that 48 states have concealed carry laws on the books, and in no case has this been a cause of escalation of violence...Obama is being two-faced and a panderer.

I support open carry but consider concealed carry a mixed bag. The combination of reduction in social acceptance of open carry and the easing of restrictions on concealed carry has had a negative impact here.

Where is here, Tom?

I consider carrying hand guns, open or concealed, any place except directly to a shooting range
relatively uncivilized. No one should have guns on the village common except law enforcers. Common ground, common sense.

All over Arizona but specifically Tucson. When open carry was widely accpeted and concealed carry restricted to law enforcement and private detectives or boodyguards there was far less violent crime. Despite all the arguments private citizens are the main line of defense (by being eyes and ears) for public safety and concealed carry has eroded that capacity. It used to be if someone didn't look like a cop and was carrying concealed (many times it's visible) people called the cops. Now people have no way of knowing if the person has a permit. Robbers almost never do open carry for obvious reasons.

Laws are not obeyed by outlaws Tom. You will have to show me statistics where law-abiding citizens that carry guns concealed have elevated crime.

We live in an uncivilized world, rla. Convince the criminal not to carry a gun, and I won't either.
As for law enforcement...Their job is not to protect you as an individual.

Is Hillary for concealed carry?

BTW, people having weapons has been effective in protecting them, many studies have shown. Why no one in the Democratic establishment can grasp the obvious is beyond me.

Good straw man, but nothing else. Please note that I was addressing the ability of the average citizen to spot someone violating the law, NOT assuming outlaws would obey the law (in fact the exact opposite). I don't have stats, but LITERALLY EVERYONE who's lived here for decades sees how much worse the violence has gotten as well as the increase in armed robberies from 40 years ago.

Violence in the urban environment has escalated in much of the country. Why is that? Maybe the decay of the social fabric of this country?
Concealed carry is not to enforce law, it's to provide for individual self-defense, and nothing more.

Without communal defense self defense is far less effective. When open carry was common here would be robbers were constantly reminded a witness might shoot them while suffering the disadvantage of being reported if they were spotted carrying a (usually poorly) concealed weapon. A robber has the drop on you, self defense in that situation is mostly mythical, they don't have the drop on a passerby who sees the robbery, that's the REAL deterrent.

Open carry while legal in many parts of the country, has become socially unacceptable. Concealed carry is considered more discreet and PC.
I do both depending on circumstances.

I believe open carry becoming socially unacceptable is the larger part of the problem, but like I said, I see concealed carry as a mixed bag. If I was going to pick my fight it would be making open carry acceptable again.

While that might be true, on the right hand, on the left hand, it is these kinds of Assertions
that help to keep it that way.

We should all go back to swords. You should have to get up close and personal if you want to kill someone else and it gives him (or her) a chance to defend.

Try to make it stylish for everyone to perform their Personing, Parenting,Community Building and
National Duty in Satisfactory and Satisfying ways. Never fail to ask for what you want. You might
just get it...wouldn't it be something if we worked ourselves out of all of our problems...what would we do?...maybe discover that problems are just the matrix inverse of opportunities (Goals). Teach a more proactive (Assertive) Response Style.

There are many, including myself, that would agree with you.
http://www.opencarry.org/
However...If I would do such a thing in St. Louis, you can imagine the hassle from police and citizens...I know this as a fact. It's much more acceptable in the rurals.

Swords ban to beat violent crime http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotlan...est/4788881.stm

What assertions, rla?