Give President-Elect Obama some credit. He’s generating some economic stimulus.
As gun sales shoot up around the country, President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday that gun-owning Americans do not need to rush out and stock up before he is sworn in next month.
“I believe in common-sense gun safety laws, and I believe in the second amendment,” Obama said at a news conference. “Lawful gun owners have nothing to fear. I said that throughout the campaign. I haven’t indicated anything different during the transition. I think people can take me at my word.”
But National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said it’s not Obama’s words — but his legislative track record — that has gun-buyers flocking to the stores.
“Prior to his campaign for president, his record as a state legislator and as a U.S. Senator shows he voted for the most stringent forms of gun control, the most Draconian legislation, gun bans, ammunition bans and even an increase in federal excise taxes up to 500 percent for every gun and firearm sold,” Arulanandam said.
“I think people can take my at my word.” Such reassuring words, no?
After all, it’s not like Obama has broken his promises or changed his mind on public financing, or filibustering the FISA bill, or windfall profits taxes, or not staffing his cabinet with “the same Washington players,” or tapping into the strategic petroleum reserve, or nuclear power, or renegotiating NAFTA, or debating John McCain anytime and anywhere, or whether Iran is a threat, or meeting with dictators without preconditions, or disowning Jeremiah Wright, or whether he could ever leave his church, or whether Jim Johnson works for him, or whether he would have supported the 1996 welfare reform bill, or whether Jerusalem must remain undivided, or the quality of Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy experience…
By the way, even as Obama insists that he and the Democrats won’t be taking steps to enact stricter restrictions on Second Amendment rights, nobody told the gun control groups this, as they’re touting “The Death of the NRA” and declaring the elections “a sweeping victory for gun control.”
Of course, a lot of these new Democrats in the House and Senate are A-rated by the NRA, and plenty more are B-rated. But there is now at least some chance of gun control legislation getting through Congress, a reason for gun owners to be wary of the new Congress. A few who insisted that Democrats would never make a move on this issue are beginning to sweat a little bit.