Hillary Rodham Clinton makes stirring plea for gun control

[benEzra]

82. Obama spent a whole lot of effort in 2008 reassuring voters he would *not* go after gun owners

or make new gun restrictions a priority, and went so far as to tell a gathering of gun owners that he couldn't push for a new AWB even if he wanted to. So did the progressive American Hunters and Shooters Association, which campaigned hard for Obama explicitly stating that he would NOT push the "assault weapon" fraud anymore, and that lawful and peaceable gun owners were not threatened. In fact, 2008 was probably the first national election since 1994 in which the Dem candidate didn't promise to fight hard to outlaw popular civilian guns, and he also promised to rein in the Surveillance State, which helped him among the half of gun owners who are Dems and indies. I was heavily involved in this debate and defended Obama on the gun issue pretty vigorously, and up until his second term he was pretty good on gun rights if you look at what he did (legalized National Park carry, guns in checked baggage on Amtrak, etc.), rather than what he said to smooth the feathers of the prohibitionists. That changed after 2012, of course, when he went full Third Way on the gun issue, but up to that point he seemed to focus on the root causes of violence, rather than attacking lawful ownership.

As to the current discussion, speaking out against racial violence/racism/intolerance is fantastic, and helpful. Signaling to a quarter of Dems and a third or more of independents that you despise them and are going to take cherished rights from them---or allowing your words to give that impression, even if you didn't so intend---isn't. The message of racial harmony is getting buried by the "you gun owners are evil and we're coming after you" theme, here on DU and in the media at large. Heck, read any gun thread in GD or LBN and see what I mean. Death wishes, sexual insults, promises to ban and confiscate people's guns, promises to resurrect the "assault weapon" fraud (after a shooting that involved a low-capacity pistol), personal insults, what have you. You typically see more hatred and anger directed at lawful and peaceable gun ownership than you do against racism, racial hatred, and white supremacy, and that is extraordinarily counterproductive on both fronts.