Obama taking on Rural Challenges

[TeamJordan23]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070722/ap_on_el_pr/on_the2008_trail_6

Obama taking on rural challenges
Associated Press

Barack Obama wants to hear about the challenges facing rural communities.

The Democratic presidential candidate plans a rural policy summit in Iowa in mid-August that will focus on rural economic development, quality of life and agriculture and renewable energy policy.

"People in the rural economies suffer from many of the things people do all across the country," he said in a telephone interview Sunday with The Associated Press.

He noted common problems with health care access, failing school systems and lack of livable wages. But the Illinois senator said there are unique issues that must be addressed as well.

He mentioned spotty rural broadband and wireless coverage, underfunded community colleges and a need to make the most of the growing alternative energy industry.

Although rural America long has been a stronghold for Republicans, Obama said Democrats have made major strides in rural areas.

"Obviously, rural communities and agricultural regions often times are politically more conservative, but part of that has to do with positions on social issues more than it has to do with economic issues," he said.

"I think Democrats have come to understand that on issues of faith, on respecting the rights of sportsmen and hunters ... we haven't always listened as much as we should have. We're getting, I think, a much better sense of what's required and what's important to win over rural America."

[virginia mountainman]

1. Hunters???

Word to the wise, the VAST MAJORITY of gun owners are NOT hunters...

Till he leaves Semi-Automatic rifles alone, he has 0% chance in the vast majority of this nation.

Didn't we learn in 1994? Evidently NOT... Bill Richardson in '08

[Kingstree]

2. So you are saying your guns are more important than someone's life.

[virginia mountainman]

3. My guns

PROTECT Life...what protects yours?

[Ethelk2044]

4. Protecting Children lives. Too many kids are dying because people are saying

my guns. A three year old got shot the other day. I guess the person thought like you it is my gun.

[TeamJordan23]

5. Urban crime rate, homicide rate has been rapidly increasing, especially this past year. nm

[Ethelk2044]

6. I agree. We need to get the guns off the street. How many spouses

have killed their significant other recently. It is unbelievable how many husbands have killed their wifes. You see children shot or even killed. It is not that the child was doing anything wrong. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

[virginia mountainman]

7. LOL...

I see you have never met my wife...

She is a RN and a collage student, and she carries with her a fully customized Kimber .45 pistol. With her CCW permit.

I would not DARE, raise my fist to her.

Heck even my 7 and 10 year old have their own firearms. (granted, I keep them locked away, but if they ask, I take them out and let them shoot!)

BTW...Name one gun law, that WORKED?

Also, what do you an when you say "street"?

[benEzra]

10. The gun safe my wife and I share is NOT "the street"...

We need to get the guns off the street. How many spouses have killed their significant other recently. It is unbelievable how many husbands have killed their wifes. You see children shot or even killed. It is not that the child was doing anything wrong. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The gun safe my wife and I share is NOT "the street," and she is as disturbed by people who want to outlaw her guns as I am about people who want to ban mine. A third of U.S. gun owners are women, though you'd rarely hear that from the MSM.

H.R.1022 and similar legislation isn't about rifles "on the street"; it's about rifles in the homes of people like my wife and I. We'd like to keep them, thanks.

[benEzra]

8. Rifles aren't a serious crime problem in the U.S. and never have been...

So you are saying your guns are more important than someone's life.

Rifles aren't a crime problem and never have been. To use Sen. Obama's state as an example, the FBI reports that there were 448 murders in Illinois in 2005. All rifles COMBINED accounted for only 4 of them.

In any given year, multiple states will report zero rifle homicides. Nationwide, the percentage of murders that involve rifles is less than 3%.

http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/data/table_20.html

IMHO, fighting to ban the most popular civilian rifles in America, when rifles are vastly underrepresented in violent crime, is not only counterproductive, it is political suicide in much of the United States.

[benEzra]

9. Hunting is mostly irrelevant to the gun issue.

"I think Democrats have come to understand that on issues of faith, on respecting the rights of sportsmen and hunters ... we haven't always listened as much as we should have. We're getting, I think, a much better sense of what's required and what's important to win over rural America."

OK, here's something that most of the party has been listening to since '04, but some DLC'ers apparently haven't gotten the message yet.

Hunting is mostly irrelevant to the gun issue. Only 1 in 5 U.S. gun owners hunts, and of the 20% who do hunt, many also own nonhunting guns slated for banning under H.R.1022 et seq.

Dems and the Gun Issue - Now What? (written in '04, largely vindicated in '06, IMO)

Alienated Rural Democrat (thanks to virginiamountainman--this is one of the best firsthands account of how the gun issue plays in rural areas that I've seen).

Fighting to ban the most popular civilian target rifles in America, while mumbling stuff about protecting the rights of hunters, is how Gore got tagged with the "Dems'll-take-yer-guns" meme in '00 and Kerry/Edwards in '04. The '08 candidates would be wise to GET INFORMED on the issue before fighting for the gun ban du jour, particularly since rifles of any type are quite underrepresented in violent crimes (less than 3% of homicides involve any type of rifle).