NRA Members Echo Fiery Right-Wing Anti-Obama Rhetoric: ‘He Hates The Second Amendment’

[RedEarth]

Last weekend, ThinkProgress interviewed dozens of NRA members at the NRA’s annual conference in Charlotte, NC. While many offered reasonable positions on issues that haven’t been widely publicized — such as closing the “terror gap” gun loophole and whether gun owners should be to allowed bring weapons into bars and consume alcohol — the vast majority of NRA members ThinkProgress spoke with echoed the misinformed and extreme anti-Obama rhetoric espoused by right-wing heroes such as Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and other Fox News hosts.

Indeed, right-wing leaders brought their inflammatory rhetoric to this year’s conference. NRA favorite Ted Nugent repeatedly claimed that “there’s a Marxist in the White House,” while Palin and Beck entertained thousands of NRA members with classic anti-Obama one-liners

PALIN: Don’t doubt for a minute that, if they thought they could get away with it, they would ban guns and ban ammunition and gut the Second Amendment.

BECK: The people that we have running the country, these are not Democrats. These are revolutionaries! They are Marxist revolutionaries!


Not surprisingly, many of the NRA’s members repeat this right-wing noise. ThinkProgress has compiled a video of some of the more egregious examples of anti-Obama rhetoric taken from interviews at the conference:

NRA MEMBER 1: He just assume get rid of all the guns in the country I’m sure.

NRA MEMBER 2: I think he would try to eliminate the Second Amendment if he could.

NRA MEMBER 3: I think we’re headed toward socialism. And I think if that happens we’ll be not long after that we’ll be headed toward communism.

NRA MEMBER 4: He has no respect for the country, no respect for the Constitution. … I believe he hates the Second Amendment.

NRA MEMBER 5: He’s an idiot. … I think that he’s anti-American. I think he’s trying to destroy our country and turn it into a socialist country

Watch the video compilation....

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/05/17/nra-obama-second-amendment/

[benEzra]

1. Hmmm, a PR organization handpicks 5 people out of 72,128 attending

and uses the sample to portray them all as idiot repubs. How surprising. Interview a few outliers (pick the ones with way-out-there T-shirts and hats, of course) and pretend it's a representative sample. Of course, depending on who is paying for the "poll" and why, those wacky NRA members can suddenly be moderate and enlightened:

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/10/nra-poll/

FWIW, some local news reporting on the convention, that is a bit less selectively edited:

http://news14.com/charlotte-news-104-content/top_stories/625905/seminar-teaches-gun-owners-other-forms-of-protection

My eyes may be deceiving me, but it seems not everyone in the video is a white male genuflecting before statuettes of Palin and Beck. But what do I know...

[tucsonlib]

11. Question: Why Are All Those "Moderate And Enlightened" NRA Members..

...attending and supporting a convention held by an organization that would hire Beck and Palin as their keynote speakers?

On a related note - Does anybody here actually believe that Obama wants to take away our guns? And if you do, WHY? What is your evidence? Is it because you figure Palin, Beck and Nugent couldn't all be lying, fear-mongering goofballs?

Personally, I don't care how many worthwhile activities the NRA is involved in. I could never live with myself if I knew a portion of my membership dues helped the likes of Beck and Palin to spread their poisonous lies.

[Travis Coates]

12. Does anybody here actually believe that Obama wants to take away our guns?

Yes I do. There's to much evidence supporting the idea. Do I think he'll actually try? No, I think he knows better. But I do have to a gree W/ Palin on this one thing. If the Bamster could get away w/ it yes he'd take our guns

[tucsonlib]

13. "..to (sic) much evidence.."?

Let's hear some of it, then.

"the Bamster"? Why is it that I question your ability to be objective on this subject?

[jazzhound]

14. You may be in for a surprise.

A rather long list of Obama's anti-gun actions was recently posted on another thread.


10.....9......8......7.......6.................

[tucsonlib]

16. Still Waiting...

And someone is going to have to explain to me..verrry carefully..precisely WHY Obama (or any President, regardless of party) would want to confiscate our guns. What would be the motive? What would he gain? Does he sit around thinking, "If only I could disarm the citizenry, then I'd be free to..".......what?

Here's my prediction - and I'd wager any amount that I'm right: At the end of Obama's term, regardless of what you do or fail to do, you will not have had a single one of your guns confiscated. In fact, your gun collection will have grown considerably, and your ammo stash will have increased ten-fold. Want proof? Walk in to any gun store and gaze upon the empty tables once piled high with boxes of ammo; the bare rifle and shotgun racks; the cabinets devoid of handguns. And who will be the winners? Well, in a small sense I suppose you will. Your firearm collections will be more extensive and valuable. But (naturally), the real winners will be the firearms and ammunition manufacturers - those fear-mongering price-gougers who, with help from their friends at the NRA, invented a non-existent "crisis" to sell more wares and artificially inflate their prices.

[jazzhound]

17. If you've been paying attention to what's being said on this forum, you

would have realized that nobody here believes that a single one of our guns will be confiscated. What we're talking about here is what the President would do if it were to be politically feasible based on his past record -- which is clearly anti gun rights.

And do you really think you need to lecture a group of gun owners as to what's going on w/regard to gun/ammo availability?

And regarding President Obama's possible motivations, one could only speculate that he's been drinking the same Kool-Aid supplied by the VPC and Brady Bunch that so many faux progressives have.

[jazzhound]

18. Obama's relationship with the distinctly anti gun rights Joyce Foundation

is detailed here:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0408/9722.html

Otherwise, all you really have to do is use the amazing google machine.

[shadowrider]

19. Here

http://www.ontheissues.org/domestic/Barack_Obama_Gun_Control.htm

[Travis Coates]

21. Confiscating guns

As has been said no one here (including me) believes that Obama is dumb enough to actually try a gun grab. He is politically savvy enough to realize what the two year run on guns and ammunition means. But he has stated that he is against CCW he has allowed to be posted on his website that he supports the renewal of the "Assault Weapons" Ban as well as the Tihart amendment.

Bottom line (again) I agree Caribou Barbie, if he could get away W/ it he'd institute a gun ban but he isn't about to throw away a shot at a second term to do it.

[GreenStormCloud]

24. Obama's record on guns

FACT: Supported ban on concealed carry; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-4jqZSEo0Q

FACT: He voted for 2005 Kennedy Amendment Intended by Kennedy to ban all common center-fire rifle ammo. Kennedy, in his speech named the .30-30, first made in the mid 1890s, as a cop-killer to be banned. The .30-30 is one of the most common hunting rounds in America. Reference to Kennedy’s speech, Congressional Record: http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgibin/getpage.cgi?dbname=2004_record&page=S1634&position=all

“Another rifle caliber, the 30.30 caliber, was responsible for penetrating three officers’ armor and killing them in 1993, 1996, and 2002. This ammunition is also capable of puncturing light-armored vehicles, ballistic or armored glass, armored limousines, even a 600-pound safe with 600 pounds of safe armor plating. It is outrageous and unconscionable that such ammunition continues to be sold in the United States of America.”

A ban on the .30-30 would have banned ALL common hunting ammunition. Since Kennedy wrote the amendment, and since he specifically named the .30-30, then we must assume that he did intend to ban the .30-30, and ALL hunting ammo.

Obama voted FOR the amendment.


FACT: Obama voted AGAINST the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005

FACT Obama supported a ban in Illinois on semi-auto guns

FACT: As a state senator he voted against a bill that would have given amnesty for a person who used a gun in self-defense, even if it was illegal for them to have the gun. In New York, Goetz was about to be mugged by four young men. He shot them all, none fatally. The jury accepted his claim of self-defense (The evidence was overwhelming.) but he was also charged with having a concealed weapon illegally and was convicted of that. The Illinois bill would have granted amnesty for gun possession if the gun was used in genuine self-defense. Obama said, “NO”.

FACT: On his website he supported permanent reinstatement of the so-called Assault Weapons Ban.

Get the idea? Obama is anti-gun, but is smart enough to know that outside of Illinois and a few other states, it is a big-time loser.

[gorfle]

27. I don't know how many times we have to keep saying this.

And someone is going to have to explain to me..verrry carefully..precisely WHY Obama (or any President, regardless of party) would want to confiscate our guns. What would be the motive? What would he gain? Does he sit around thinking, "If only I could disarm the citizenry, then I'd be free to..".......what?

Here's my prediction - and I'd wager any amount that I'm right: At the end of Obama's term, regardless of what you do or fail to do, you will not have had a single one of your guns confiscated. In fact, your gun collection will have grown considerably, and your ammo stash will have increased ten-fold. Want proof? Walk in to any gun store and gaze upon the empty tables once piled high with boxes of ammo; the bare rifle and shotgun racks; the cabinets devoid of handguns. And who will be the winners? Well, in a small sense I suppose you will. Your firearm collections will be more extensive and valuable. But (naturally), the real winners will be the firearms and ammunition manufacturers - those fear-mongering price-gougers who, with help from their friends at the NRA, invented a non-existent "crisis" to sell more wares and artificially inflate their prices.

I don't know how many times this has to be said. The NRA did not invent this crisis. The firearm and ammunition vendors did not invent this crisis. If they had that kind of power in the market, why would they have waited until now to exercise it??????

President Obama's stated intent was to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban. He campaigned on this, it is still on www.change.gov under urban policy, and it was on www.whitehouse.gov under urban policy until a few months into his term. His appointed attorney general floated the idea of reinstating the AWB, and was then loudly shouted down by Nancy Pelosi and others. It is also a stated goal of the Democratic Party Platform to reinstate the AWB.

No one who is aware of this issue believes that President Obama has had a religious conversion concerning the right to keep and bear arms. He simply knows that it is politically deadly to mess with the second amendment right now.

So of course there are not going to be any firearm confiscations under President Obama's term in office. He can't even muster the support to even speak about the Assault Weapons Ban. But I don't doubt for a minute how he still feels about the issue.

Furthermore, bans on sales of classes of firearms are just as bad as confiscation. The end result is the same - all future generations of Americans will not be able to buy those firearms anymore. This is just as disastrous as if they had all been confiscated.

[one-eyed fat man]

28. His history is clearly and completely anti-gun.

On his own websites, as a candidate, during the transition and during the early days of whitehouse.gov, military automatic weapons given as the reason, yet again, to justify a ban on guns that are not?

http://obama.3cdn.net/84b2062fc4a5114715_ftxamv9ot.pdf

Note especially the part about "As a long-time resident and elected official of Chicago, Barack Obama has seen the impact of fully automatic weapons in the hands of criminals. Thus, Senator Obama supports making permanent the expired federal Assault Weapon Ban."

Read that again, "FULLY AUTOMATIC WEAPONS in the hands of criminals" are a problem he proposes to solve by banning guns that are not fully automatic and not in the hands of criminals.

Again, how much more directly or more plainly can he say he supports reinstating the ban on semiautomatic weapons by alluding they are machine guns? You can't convince me he is too stupid to know the difference, rather, he has coldly calculated that he can deceive those who don't know and disregard those who do.

He sat on the board of the Joyce Foundation which funds completely both HCI and the VPC. Now, the political realities are such is that the President recognizes it cannot be done at this time. Like when you were a kid and your Mom told you to keep your grubby little hands out of the cookie jar. You weren't so dense as to try while she was watching you no matter how much you wanted that cookie. Again, just because he CAN'T, doesn't mean he doesn't WANT to. It also means he WON'T try as long as there is one more election to run.

[shadowrider]

29. If there was an opportunity

With no political repercussions to suffer, he'd ban them in a heartbeat.

[benEzra]

20. I think choosing Beck and Palin as keynote speakers was stupid, yes...

...and I believe that Obama is smart enough not to support the "assault weapon" fraud. Fighting to ban the most popular civilian rifles in the United States, and magazines for the most popular civilian handguns, would be unspeakably stupid, and I think he realizes that. Biden has always been a strong supporter, though, and certainly some in Congress (Feinstein, Schumer, McCarthy) and the party leadership still support it, as is evidenced by the fact that the bait-and-switch is still in the damn party platform. So I am cautiously optimistic.

I don't believe that Think Progress is doing Dems any favors by this "NRA is teh evil" stuff. Yes, the leadership is too partisan and too repub, but going after the rank and file---and non-Brady-leaning gun owners in general---is wrongheaded and counterproductive, IMO.

[Euromutt]

23. It's ~70,000 out of ~4 million members attending

I am an NRA member, but even if I'd had the money and time to attend (oh, and voting rights, for which I haven't been a member long enough), you couldn't have got me to be in the same zip code as the line-up of right-wing goons they picked as speakers this year.

There are a number of people on this board, myself included, who are NRA members for the explicit purpose of fighting "from within the belly of the beast," so to speak, to foster the perception that being a liberal Democrat does not by definition make you anti-RKBA (or vice-versa, given the political background of the Sarah Bradys and Carolyn McCarthys of this world).

On a related note - Does anybody here actually believe that Obama wants to take away our guns?

Speaking for myself, yes. More or less. I strongly suspect that, given the opportunity, Obama, and various members of his administration, would like nothing better than to impose a system like that of Chicago, or Washington D.C., on the entire country: possession of long guns suitable for hunting or target shooting subject to stringent licensing and registration, to be kept disassembled in the home; ideally, no ownership of handguns permitted, but if they are, only after a licensing process so tortuous, time-consuming and expensive as to make the process of legal immigration into the U.S. pale by comparison. And forget about carry permits, except maybe for the exceptionally rich, famous and/or politically connected.

That would eliminate at least 2/3 of my firearms, because I don't hunt or shoot skeet; most of my firearms I keep for defending my family and myself; i.e. they're weapons primarily suited for combat (inflicting potentially lethal trauma on other people), not "sporting purposes."

It's not so much a question of Obama, or Biden, or any number of (mostly north-eastern) members of Congress looking to "take our guns away" per se, but to take away the right to keep and bear arms in defense of ourselves and our families. When John Kerry or Chuck Schumer or Joe Biden or Hilary Clinton or, yes, Barack Obama promises me he or she will respect my ability to keep guns suitable for killing game, it doesn't reassure me because they're missing the point, which is that I'm not interested in keeping guns for the purpose of blasting various forms of wildlife; I keep them for the purpose of warding off or neutralizing threats to the physical well-being of my wife, child and myself. Which, not to put too fine a point on it, strikes me as damn sight more compelling reason than the ability to bag a deer, pig, pheasant, duck or whatnot.

[tucsonlib]

30. Thank You For Your Thoughtful Comments

I also do not hunt, and my firearms are also kept mainly for home defense. But to me, your assertion that "It's not so much a question of.....looking to "take our guns away" per se, but to take away the right to keep and bear arms in defense of ourselves and our families" still begs the question: WHY? What is their motive? What would they have to gain by rendering you and your family defenseless? Why, in short, do you fear that "given the opportunity, Obama, and various members of his administration, would like nothing better than to impose a system like that of Chicago, or Washington D.C., on the entire country...."?

I just don't see any signs whatsoever that this administration (or any administration) would do something which, on so many different levels, would be so incredibly stupid.

[gorfle]

26. HOW MANY TIMES DOES THIS HAVE TO BE POINTED OUT????

On a related note - Does anybody here actually believe that Obama wants to take away our guns? And if you do, WHY? What is your evidence? Is it because you figure Palin, Beck and Nugent couldn't all be lying, fear-mongering goofballs?

My God, seriously, how often does this have to be said?

Every time people wring their hands and say, "Golly, I just can't believe why gun owners thing Obama doesn't have their interest at heart! How can that be?!?!"

PRESIDENT OBAMA CAMPAIGNED ON RE-INSTATING THE ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN!

Here is WHAT IS STILL WRITTEN ON WWW.CHANGE.GOV:

http://change.gov/agenda/urbanpolicy_agenda/

"They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent. "

This same passage was on www.whitehouse.gov until a few months into his presidency!

Go read the DEMOCRATIC PARTY PLATFORM:

http://www.democrats.org/a/party/platform.html

" We can work together to enact and enforce common-sense laws and improvements – like closing the gun show loophole, improving our background check system, and reinstating the assault weapons ban, so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals."

Then all you have to do is go look at President Obama's past voting record concerning firearms.

There is absolutely ZERO DOUBT that President Obama, and key members of his staff, are stridently anti-second-amendment. There is also ZERO DOUBT that the sole reason they have not acted against it is because they know it is politically impossible to do.

[rrneck]

2. It's probably easier

to find a right wing nut at an NRA convention than at an ACLU convention. Time will tell if the NRA, as an organization, will head left with the rest of the country. If their membership continues to pick up lefties, you may not recognize them in ten years.

[onehandle]

3. GOP Propaganda arm hates Obama.

Duh.

[Callisto32]

4. Don't have to be GOP to hate Obama.

I "hate" (as much as one can a person he does not know) Obama the same way I hated Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, and Reagan. I think their unapologetic expansion of the size and powers of the federal government are contemptible.

[PavePusher]

5. Yes!

:toast:

[divideandconquer]

7. So you hate Obama?

[east texas lib]

8. I believe he saw your play for what it was...

Old hat.

[PavePusher]

15. Nope.

Just strongly disagree with some of his policies.

I don't think we've any great presidents for quite some time. Or legislaturists.

[east texas lib]

6. Hmmm...Must be a slow day up at AHQ..

:o

[GreenStormCloud]

9. Let me interview hundreds of people and I bet I can find five who believe space aliens are here. N/T

[Glassunion]

22. What? They aren't?

[rrneck]

25. Damn. I'm busted.

The guys with the black suits and sunglasses told me they had my ass covered.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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