Until now, President Obama has done a brilliant job of downplaying his disdain for the 2nd Amendment. His record and statements from his time in Congress speak volumes, but in the post-Heller landscape, he’s done his best to sidestep the issue.
Nobody, and I mean nobody who wants a political future, is willing to pursue gun control. The usual media pundits bemoan the fact that they can’t get a conversation started about it. Even the Brady Campaign is doing its best to shift to the middle. When he couldn’t avoid the issue altogether, the President made vague statements in support of the right to keep and bear arms. Heck, he could have even claimed that he had evolved on the issue. That would have been smart.
What’s not so smart was today’s statement in New Orleans:
But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers and not in the hands of crooks. They belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities
That was a big dumb thing. Now people are going to dredge up every pre-Oval Office statement he made in support of renewing the Assault Weapons Ban. He does realize this is an election year, right? Even though Romney has a fairly wretched record on the 2nd Amendment, the President has just set him up as the NRA’s knight in shiny armor and flawless hair.
And for what? He’s obviously pandering, but to whom? Gun control as an issue is on the wane, and the few diehard supporters he might retain aren’t worth the moderates he’s going to lose.