I think it’s safe to say that the biggest concern I have with President-elect Obama is his stance on gun rights. I voted for him despite that. I think it is likely some gun measure will pass at least one house during his presidency, and I just hope it will die in the other.
We have more urgent issues right now than gun control, and it will only become an issue if he makes it one. I hope his disapproval of drama will keep it from becoming enacted.
I think he is more likely to try to assist in location specific issues than a general gun control, (eg, cities), and I think he’s learned from the ‘bitter’ comment.
Further, I think he’s more intelligent than most insofar as ‘thing that goes up’, and whatever position he takes, while it won’t be mine, won’t be blatantly stupid.
I rather expect extended capacity magazines to be banned.
E-Sabbath, I think you’re being a little obtuse here, perhaps deliberately so.
Pres.-Elect Obama doesn’t have to make it an issue; he has a prefectly willing hatchet man serving right beside him, and plenty of support in both chambers of Congress.
He can “wash his hands” of the affair, even as he signs a “Bill Package” that gives millions of dollars of relief to kittens, puppies, and orphans (so the eeee-vil Pubbies don’t block it) and oh, by the way, also has the “2009 New-And-Improved-Comprehensive-This-Time-We-Really-Fucking-Mean-It-Assault-Weapons-Ban” tacked onto it.
I admitted that I needed a little help with a response. I was in no way attacking anyone or trying to win. Guess I’ll just slink off now… This is why I usually don’t participate in Great Debates. Thanks.
So a nameless fella on a SoIll message board said something about your guy that you didn’t like. So you came to this powerhouse of all things Obama looking for some help. I can understand that. Did you give credit for your stellar reply to the SoIll gent to the denizens of the SDMB? Or just walk away from that board feeling smug and superior with your reply? Do you feel better responding to a self described “anti-Obama Gun Freak” with words from someone else?
As you all know I’m a big Obama supporter, and I agree that he’ll probably sign some legislation tightening gun laws, and I would support that on an ideological basis.
But form a political point of view I think it’s ultimately a losing issue for the Democrats, and hope that the House doesn’t bring it up. There are far more important things to be done than futz around with guns. I think that the situation we have now is about as good as a compromise as we can get. The Supreme Court – when they ruled on the DC gun laws – essentially endorsed the gun restrictions of cities like New York which is a de facto ban on handguns. Obama would be wise to not interfere. There are also no “single-issue, gun-banning liberals” to speak of, so he won’t lose votes for not pushing it. You take the gun issue off the table by gaining the trust of the 2nd Amendment voters. Hell it’s in the GD Constitution, it’s won’t be possible to restrict it much more anyway. I think it’s stupid and unnecessary that we’re the only industrialized nation with such archaic laws and such, but this is the situation that we have been given, and I see no way to change that. If you want to reduce guns, you’ll have to change the culture.
Furt’s response (“there can be only one!!! debate or die!!!”) says more about him than it does about Great Debates in general. Take the comment with a grain of salt the size of a planetary body.
Me, I don’t see how Obama has political capital to waste on gun control. One, the Democrats don’t have their filibuster-proof majority; two, there are two wars going on; three, there is an economic crisis; four, there are messes to clean up from the Bush administration, not the least of which is strengthening the Constitution since Cheney pissed all over it.
I doubt that a message of “destroy the 2nd amendment” is going to be compatible with “restore the 1st, 4th, 5th, and bits of the 6th through 9th amendments inclusively.”
The gun loonies are correct. Obama is not concerned with the economy. the war or any of those problems. He is staying up nights trying to find a way to confiscate all guns. The reason he never brought it up ,was to hide the cabal of gun snatchers from view. But they are there. Waiting for you to go to work so they can use their unlimited search warrant rights to go into your homes and take your guns.
As a practicing liberal ,I think we have too many guns in America and it is bad. Like most of us, I spend zero time thinking about guns, until the gun nutters start crying about imaginary rights being taken away. Nobody is after your damn guns.
I’m not trying to be obtuse, Ex. I’m saying that I’m hoping Obama has learned from the ‘bitter’ comment that gun control is something that people will raise a howl over. And we know he’s against drama. So unless and until we have another major shooting, I think gun control is probably not something that will come from him. When we do, I think we’re more likely to see specific measures to curb whatever happened, rather than a sweeping bill. Obama’s said, repeatedly, he’s not in favor of guns in the city at all. Heller kind of blocks that bill, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a variant. I think we’re more likely to see a region-focused bill rather than a sweeping national ban on any specific weapon.
What a congresscritter gets up its mind to do, though, is something different, of course, and I do see some crazy mother trying to ban everything if the Dems maintain their dominance. I think this is one of the benefits of the Dems sliding towards the middle, less Dem concern about gun control from an ideological standpoint.
But probably no bill near election time, and probably not this year at all, as they got seriously more important stuff to be dealing with.
Edit: When I say ‘come from him’, I’m talking about originating from him, including Rahm and other sideways ways to get it on the table.
Also, Gonzomax isn’t allowed to take part in gun discussions anymore. I think we can all agree on that.
Congratulations, sir, you hit a density of strawmen per sentence that’s very difficult to achieve.
Imaginary rights. I like that. I think there’s a long list of rights you could make the case for that are imaginary long before one specifically encoded in the Constitution as being worthy of enumerated protection, though.
I got everything else you said, and you’re probably right; it’s the proliferation of these “gun” threads since right before the election that’s got me kinda jumpy.
It’s almost as if a certain group of people of a particular ideological bent were trying to shove the whole “gun debate” back into the center of the public’s consciousness…
…but to what end?
As far as gonzo’s concerned, I reckon he’s free to participate in as many of these threads as he (she? I’m getting “him” vibes from “his” posts) desires to.
And I’m free to ignore him, and giggle at his posts.
I admitted that I needed a little help with a response. I was in no way attacking anyone or trying to win. Guess I’ll just slink off now… This is why I usually don’t participate in Great Debates. Thanks.