# Obama and guns **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 13, 2016, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014 "2016-01-13T04:18:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/1 "2016-01-13T04:18:55Z")
2nd Amendment enthusiasts: How do you respond to President Obama State of the Union? During the [entire speech](http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016/01/12/read-the-presidents-2016-state-of-the-union-speech), I believe he said only this one small sentence “Protecting our kids from gun violence.” 6 words out of 5,000+ of his speech. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/2 "2016-01-13T05:37:39Z")
So then if he barely mentioned it, what’s the question? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/3 "2016-01-13T05:42:41Z")
Reported for forum change. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/4 "2016-01-13T10:04:30Z")
Moving to Great Debates. ---
**Author:** ![Oddball\_92](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/b3f665/32.png) [@Oddball\_92](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oddball_92)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/5 "2016-01-13T14:19:27Z")
I did not watch obama’s state of the union speech but I did watch the tearful gun speech. If obama had been truly sincere in the gun speech, I believe he would have said more about it in the state of the union speech given the short time frame between the two. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/6 "2016-01-13T14:34:26Z")
Not sure it will matter much, but here is the context: > [@Obama](#): > > But tonight, I want to go easy on the traditional list of proposals for the year ahead. Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty, from helping students learn to write computer code to personalizing medical treatments for patients. And I’ll keep pushing for progress on the work that still needs doing. Fixing a broken immigration system. Protecting our kids from gun violence. Equal pay for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage. All these things still matter to hardworking families; they are still the right thing to do; and I will not let up until they get done. Emphasis added. I’m pretty far from a “2nd amendment enthusiast”, but my reaction is: That’s really about street crime, and is something the states need to address. I don’t really see much of a role for the feds, unless you want to end the War on Drugs. Also, shouldn’t we be concerned about protecting adults from gun violence? ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/7 "2016-01-13T14:47:15Z")
> [@Oddball\_92](#): > > I did not watch obama’s state of the union speech but I did watch the tearful gun speech. If obama had been truly sincere in the gun speech, I believe he would have said more about it in the state of the union speech given the short time frame between the two. That’s silly. The short time between the two is a reason _not_ to talk about his firearm EOs in the SotU address. Or are you starting from the belief that the President is insincere and working backwards? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/8 "2016-01-13T15:40:38Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > 2nd Amendment enthusiasts: How do you respond to President Obama State of the Union? > > During the [entire speech](http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016/01/12/read-the-presidents-2016-state-of-the-union-speech), I believe he said only this one small sentence “Protecting our kids from gun violence.” 6 words out of 5,000+ of his speech. I am a fan of the Second Amendment, so I will answer: I agree with his goal, assuming of course that he means “…within the confines of the Second Amendment.” In much the same way, as a fan of the First Amendment, if he had said he wanted to protect our kids from violent pornography, I’d be on board as long as the context was “…within the confines of the First Amendment.” ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/9 "2016-01-13T16:57:50Z")
> [@andros](#): > > That’s silly. The short time between the two is a reason _not_ to talk about his firearm EOs in the SotU address. Or are you starting from the belief that the President is insincere and working backwards? I agree with this - Obama has already spent quite a bit of time recently expressing his position on guns and a focus elsewhere during this speech is not indicative of a change in those positions. I am more interested in how he follows up on his recent [NY Times Op Ed](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/opinion/president-barack-obama-guns-are-our-shared-responsibility.html?_r=0) where he said: > [@Obama](#): > > Even as I continue to take every action possible as president, I will also take every action I can as a citizen. I will not campaign for, vote for or support any candidate, even in my own party, who does not support common-sense gun reform. In a press briefing the next day, [Obama’s Press Secretary](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/08/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-01082016)was asked to clarify and there was this exchange: > [@](#): > > \*\*Q \*\*Yes. I’m just kind of wondering if you can put some parameters on that – what a candidate would have to do or not do for the President – or I guess what a candidate would have to do or not for the President to say I’m not going to vote for you, I’m not going to campaign for you, I’m not going to fundraise for you. And also how he would kind of extricate his actions with the DNC or the DSCC or whoever else in that. > > **MR. EARNEST** : Well, I don’t know that I have like a comprehensive list of outlines. But I think based on the discussion that we’ve been having over the last several days, you have a pretty good sense of what the President is talking about when he talks about common-sense gun safety measures. So these are things like closing the gun show loophole, or closing the no-fly, no-buy loophole. This is the loophole that – at this point, there’s no law that prevents somebody who is on the no-fly list from being able to walk into a gun store and purchasing a firearm. Surely, if the government has determined that it’s too dangerous for you to board an airplane, then it should be too dangerous for you to buy a gun. This is another common-sense proposal that the President has in mind. > > In the op-ed that you just cited, the President talked at some length about the responsibility that gun manufacturers have in gun safety, and there are some common-sense things that we believe that gun manufacturers could do. And there are certainly some common-sense things that – well, there are certainly some things that Congress has done that don’t fit common sense that have absolved gun manufacturers from assuming some of that responsibility. So those are some of the things that the President has in mind. So, routing private party sales through FFLs, and side stepping due process to remove people’s constitutional rights are among things Obama thinks are common sense. We’ll see if he campaigns for people who don’t share this view. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obama-and-guns/743014/10 "2016-01-13T19:43:16Z")
> [@Bone](#): > > I agree with this - Obama has already spent quite a bit of time recently expressing his position on guns and a focus elsewhere during this speech is not indicative of a change in those positions. I am more interested in how he follows up on his recent [NY Times Op Ed](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/08/opinion/president-barack-obama-guns-are-our-shared-responsibility.html?_r=0) where he said: > In a press briefing the next day, [Obama’s Press Secretary](https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/01/08/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-01082016)was asked to clarify and there was this exchange: > So, routing private party sales through FFLs, and side stepping due process to remove people’s constitutional rights are among things Obama thinks are common sense. We’ll see if he campaigns for people who don’t share this view. I can see a lot of people being OK with routing all gun sales through an FFL. The no fly list issue has severe constitutional problems unless they tighten up the no fly list significantly. The notion of common sense gun control is pretty ill-defined as we have seen in the thread of that name.