President Obama, still demagoguing the gun control issue, said Thursday that he didn’t want to ban handguns. Asked why he wanted to ban assault weapons, which cannot compare in number of gun deaths to the number of handgun-related deaths, Obama said, “I actually don’t think we should ban handguns. But keep in mind what we’re trying to do is come up with a package that protects Second Amendment rights but also contributes to reduce violence.”
He may want to read the Second Amendment again; it doesn’t make a distinction as to type of firearms allowed.
Obama is still after assault weapons; he used his usual technique to attack their legitimacy: “When it comes to assault weapons…my concern is, for example, in Aurora, when a young person can go into a theater and shoot off a hundred rounds in less than a minute. These are weapons of war…so for us to restrict some of those high-capacity magazines…that probably can save some lives.”
Obama tried to soften his pitch to rural gun owners, allowing that “We’ve got to be respectful of regional differences.”
Then Obama’s supposed expertise on the Constitution came to the fore. He said:
I think that people are going to be able to buy all kinds of guns and use them legally. What we’re saying is there may be a small category of weapons that we think can drastically increase instances of gun violence … On balance the second amendment does not automatically assume that any weapon that is available you can automatically purchase.
This is why he was never a constitutional law professor.
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