Why Obama's Silence on Gun Control Pleases No One

[shadowrider]

There are some issues Democratic Presidents can't seem to win, and gun control is one of them. As a legislator, Barack Obama backed tighter gun laws; as a presidential candidate, he pledged restraint. "I'm not going to take away your guns," he said at a Pennsylvania glass factory in September 2008. He hasn't. Last year the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, citing "extraordinary silence and passivity," graded Obama an F on gun control.

--snip--

If Obama has disappointed both sides so far, the tragedy in Tucson provides a possible pivot point. Senior White House aides have said the President will address the gun issue sometime soon, though they've declined to offer specifics on the timing and format. Equally unclear is what Obama wants to say — or what he thinks political considerations will permit him to. Riled by Obama's decision to duck the issue in his State of the Union address, gun-control advocates are urging aggression. "The President should stand up ," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. "It's one of the issues he can build a legacy on."

--snip--

Gun-control advocates say the President has an array of options available to reduce the U.S.'s dizzying levels of gun violence without putting himself on political quicksand. "One of the best things he could do is to endorse the legislation that's already out there," says Paul Helmke, the Brady Campaign's president.

--snip--

Even modest changes will be met with criticism. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, gun-control advocates spent $57,900 during the 2008 election, while the gun-rights lobby shelled out $2.4 million, or 41 times more. More importantly, says Ladd Everitt of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, they have cultivated a committed corps of "single-issue voters" — people who reliably trek to the polls to cast a ballot for the candidate who will go to the mat for their right to bear arms.

--snip--

Which is why gun-control advocates are hoping a cautious President may be ready to join their coalition. "I think it's important that he puts his leadership in front of it. He has the bully pulpit," McCarthy says of Obama. One thing's for sure: silence on the topic hasn't won him many fans so far.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2046592,00.html

[Callisto32]

1. I take serious issue with this kind of thinking.

It's the same thing as "well, its a post 9/11 world."

BS, the world is the same world, no matter what happened yesterday, a month, a year, or decades (de-CAdes?) ago.

Events like Tuscon should be no more a "pivot point" on gun policy than 9/11 justified ramping up violations of due process.

[Hoopla Phil]

2. Wasn't the President supposed to have made a special speech on gun control?

His press secretary said he was going to do this in just a couple of weeks. It's been a couple of weeks hasn't it?

[X_Digger]

3. Yesterday was two weeks..

Don't know if that 'couple of weeks' was literal, though.

[Pullo]

4. Egypt happened ......

They are a bit pre-occupied ATM .....

[spin]

5. Talking about gun control while Egypt is exploding ...

would be criticized as attempting to change the subject.

[GreenStormCloud]

6. A President can handle more than one thing at a time. N/T

[Hoopla Phil]

8. So what? Isn't the President of the US of A supposed to multitask?

If he cannot we need another person for the job. I believe Joe Biden is next in line.

[badtoworse]

7. Gun control is a losing issue, especially for Democrats.

Only an idiot would see it differently. Obama is not going to flush political capital down the crapper on an issue that has no chance of passing in Congress.

[Hoopla Phil]

9. And yet his press secretary said just a couple of weeks ago that

he (the President) would be addressing this issue. . . . . . . . .

we (the people) are waiting. . . . . . . .

[badtoworse]

11. I don't think we're going to hear from him about it.

I think he's just going to let the issue die because the risk of repeating 1994 is high and he knows it. Except for those who follow the issue and have a strong opinion one way or the other, people will forget his press secretary ever said that.

[Electric Monk]

10. We can debate it 'til the cows come home, but I don't see Obama making any big changes on this.

It is SO not a priority, so all the RKBA fanatics may as well save their breath.

/not that they will...

[krispos42]

12. When elected representatives knowingly do something so stupid...

...it tends to make those affected by it very angry. "I can't believe how stupid it is, and I can't believe he's pandering to the ignorant and voting for it!" seems to be the general emotion expressed.