"Obama: Gun-control advocates have to listen more" AP story

[kelly1mm]

Here is a new AP story with some interesting quotes from the President:

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/obama-gun-control-advocates-should-listen-more

Snip
"WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says gun-control advocates have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes in the debate over firearms in America.

In an interview with The New Republic, Obama says he has "a profound respect" for the tradition of hunting that dates back for generations.

"And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake. Part of being able to move this forward is understanding the reality of guns in urban areas are very different from the realities of guns in rural areas," he says.
End snip

When asked ifhe had ever shot a weapon, the President answered:

"Yes," the president says, "in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time."

[dballance]

1. Anybody Else Feel Like They Just Got Slapped in the Face?

In the majority, greater than the majority, I have not heard gun safety advocates call for much, if any, restriction on what are typically considered hunting weapons. They've been honoring the proud tradition of hunting that dates back for centuries. They've also acknowledged that rural areas have different needs than urban areas. There are real needs for guns on farms to protect the livestock from wild animals and no one has suggested we restrict farmers from having the guns to do that. When I grew up on the farm we did just fine with shotguns and a .22 rifle.

Times change though. I don't use a brick cellphone now because technology has advanced and I can have an iPhone that fits in my pocket. Perhaps an AR-15 is a great and appropriate weapon for protecting livestock now and it's just new technology with which I'm not familiar. However, the AR-15 has attributes that the guns I used growing up did not. I could not have loaded a high-capacity magazine into any of those weapons and fired shots just as fast as I could pull the trigger. That does make the AR-15 a little different.

Obama's aides and policy advisors really screwed up on giving him talking points that included "the reality of guns in urban areas are very different from the realities of guns in rural areas." Yes they are. Rural areas probably tend to use rifles more than hand guns. At least that was my experience. There were no hand guns in those gun racks in our trucks.

The "realities of guns in urban areas" are that they are overwhelmingly hand guns. He just opened the door to widening the discussion beyond the semi-auto rifles to the semi-auto hand guns when I'm certain that was not his intention. I would wager of the 435 gun deaths in Chicago in 2012 that 99.9% of them were with hand guns and not rifles.

How about this Obama? We'll do a little more listening if you'll do a little more action. Will that work for you? Because, frankly, I'm just about listened out about how we should accommodate gun owners and manufacturers at the expense of the safety of our children, our neighbors and ourselves.

[kelly1mm]

4. I thought that phrasing was odd. Apparently the AP did as well as that is the title

of the story. Maybe "Both sides need to listen more" would have been more appropriate given the President' status? We really could not ask him to say "Gun control opponents need to be ignored" (although some would like that) given the realities of being President of the United States vs. some congress member from a pro-gun control district, or even Senator from a pro-gun control state.

[davidn3600]

8. The problem goes beyond guns

We live in a violent culture. That has to change or it doesnt matter what we ban.

Gun control laws are like trying to beat the flu with an aspirin. It might take some of the symptoms away, but the virus causing the problem is still there.

Unfortunately the type of change required to make this a less violent society can't be done by passing laws. It has to be done intrinsically within the minds of the population.

[cthulu2016]

9. It's just hippie-punching for political effect

The more extreme left in anything exists primarily as a tackling dummy for moderates to use to show their reasonableness.

I do not entirely disagree with Obama here, but it is what it is. Hippie punching.

[hack89]

11. You just articulated why the AWB is security theater

handguns are the killers in America.

As for the AR-15, it is a 60 year old design using 100 year old technology. Semi-automatic rifles were in common use when you were growing up - they just look different.

[forestpath]

12. President Obama just seems inherently incapable of not slapping

those of us who don't sit back and keep quiet.

[Recursion]

13. I'm not sure of that

However, the AR-15 has attributes that the guns I used growing up did not. I could not have loaded a high-capacity magazine into any of those weapons and fired shots just as fast as I could pull the trigger.

Obviously I don't know what guns you grew up with, but semi-automatic rifles with detachable magazines were very common even 50 years ago. The only innovation of the AR is that its body is plastic.

He just opened the door to widening the discussion beyond the semi-auto rifles to the semi-auto hand guns when I'm certain that was not his intention.

I hope it was his intention; frankly I could care less about rifles in the larger picture. It's handguns that kill the most people, by far.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

2. Man, Obama shoots skeet AND brews his own beer! Two of my favorite hobbies...

I wonder if he trolls political discussion boards on the internet too!
Crap! Did I just say that out loud?!? Uh, I mean... Go OBAMA!!



No, but seriously... the fact that he makes his own homebrew and blasts clays is one reason he totally rocks.
I'd love to swap some homebrews with him after shooting some clays!

Best bachelor party I ever went to involved 3 cases of clays followed by 3 cases of beer (AFTER we put the shotguns away) and then a 10 pound marinated piece of prime rib on a spit over a campfire. No girls, no bars, no craziness... just a bunch of us friends shootin the shit!

[dballance]

5. That Sounds Like a Great Time

Gee, brewing his own beer and shooting skeet. Those are both pretty "he-man" things to do. Don't know why the "he-men" in the GOP can't get in touch with it.

I never really had any fun at the bachelor parties where we rented a limo and women and went to bars and got blasted. I think the party you went to would have been a lot more fun.

[Recursion]

14. When we set George Washington's old distillery back up a few years ago...

... the White House ordered the first bottle of hooch out of the still.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

15. I love brewing my own beer, but when it comes to 'stillin my own shine...

well, I plead the fifth on that too.

Three words: "Apple Pie Moonshine"
+ + =

[Cali_Democrat]

3. We're listening

We're listening to the sounds of children screaming as they're gunned down at school. We're listening to the tens of thousands of Americans that die from firearms every year.

We're listening.

[kelly1mm]

7. Apparently, according to the President, you need to listen to skeet shooters like him

in the rural areas instead. In order to "bridge the gap" you know?

[octoberlib]

6. And the same old DINOs

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/26/democrats_may_stand_in_obamas_way_on_gun_measures/

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is preparing to begin debating new gun control measures, and some of President Barack Obama’s fellow Democrats are poised to frustrate his efforts to enact the most sweeping limits on weapons in decades.

These Democrats from largely rural states with strong gun cultures view Obama’s proposals warily and have not committed to supporting them.

The lawmakers’ concerns could stand in the way of strong legislation before a single Republican gets a chance to vote “no.”

All eyes are on a core group of these Democrats, including Sens. Max Baucus of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska and Mark Pryor of Arkansas, who are up for re-election in 2014.

The Senate Judiciary Committee begins hearings Wednesday.

[JaneyVee]

10. Please. Rural Red States have higher rates of gun deaths per capita than urban Blue States.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/galleries/2011/01/10/deadliest-gun-states.html#slide1

[Heimer]

16. Where's my dunce cap?

I'm not understanding what those slides are trying to show?

[Lizzie Poppet]

17. Not rate of gun homicides, they don't.

Some more-rural states are among the worst, but by no means all. Maryland, California, Illinios, and Michigan are in the top ten, for example.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_violence_in_the_United_States_by_state

[JaneyVee]

18. Per capita. California has triple the population of all those states combined.

[Lizzie Poppet]

19. I was talking per capita.

California was 4th on the list (Maryland second). Moreover, there are rural states near the bottom in terms of gun-related homicide per capita, too (North Dakota, Wyoming...and one can argue that Vermont and New Hampshire are more rural than urban, too). There are rural and urban states scattered all over the chart...to the point that this is clearly not a valid factor in predicting firearms homicide rates.