Obama Would Seek Ban on Semi-Automatic Firearms

Barack Hussein Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney engaged in a rare tussle over gun control on Tuesday.  Obama opened the door to pushing for a ban on semi-automatic weapons if he wins a second term.

Obama said that he would back a semi-automatic weapons ban like the one President Bill Clinton signed in 1994. That law expired in 2004 without being renewed by Congress.

Romney signed such a ban as governor of Massachusetts, but has indicated that he would not support banning semi-automatic weapons as president.

Obama once an ardent proponent of banning civilian ownership of most firearms, has done little to push such a proposal forward during his time in the White House. Obama, did however, allow Operation Fast and Furious to proceed on during his administration.  The purpose of the ATF run scheme, was to allow illegal export of semi-automatic carbines to Mexico and then use the data to inact more gun control laws. Two federal agents were murdered in separate incidents by ATF supplied Fast and Furious firearms. 

“What I’m trying to do is to get a broader conversation about how do we reduce the violence generally,” Obama said during the debate at Hofstra University. “Part of it is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced.”

The term “assault weapon” is not a technical term describing an actual type of firearm but rather a political term denoting whatever firearm the anti-gun crowd wishes to demonize, regulate, and ban at a given point in time.

Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said he was encouraged to hear Obama mention the ban.

“It’s not surprising,” Gross said. “We’re very confident that he knows in his heart what the right thing to do on this issue is.”

Romney  said that the United States should “make enormous efforts to enforce the gun laws that we have and to change the culture of violence that we have.”

“I’m not in favor of new pieces of legislation on guns and taking guns away or making certain guns illegal,” he said.

When the moderator, CNN’s Candy Crowley, mentioned that Romney supported and signed such a ban when he was governor of Massachusetts, Romney pointed to the bipartisan support the measure enjoyed.

“It’s referred to as an assault weapon ban, but it had at the signing of the bill, both the pro-gun and the anti-gun people came together because it provided opportunities for both that both wanted,” Romney said.

Wake up America. Election Day is November 6. Vote early.

As for gun control advocates, I have no hope whatever that any facts whatever will make the slightest dent in their thinking - or lack of thinking. -Thomas Sowell