After the NIU shootings, Obama had this to say about gun control and the 2nd Amendment RKBA:
Obama said he believes in the Second Amendment, but that there is plenty of room for added gun regulations. “There is an individual right to bear arms, but it’s subject to commonsense regulation,” he said.
Mentioning his home city, Obama said local entities should also have the ability to have their own more strict regulations.
“I think that local jurisdictions have the capacity to institute their own gun laws…The City of Chicago has gun laws, as does Washington, D.C.,” he said. “I think the notion that somehow local jurisdictions can’t initiate gun safety laws to deal with gang-bangers and random shootings on the street isn’t born out by our Constitution.”
Chicago and D.C. effectively prohibit handguns. No need for federal regulation, just let the states and municipalities grab the guns on a local level.
Let’s see how this would work on an issue closer to Obama’s supporters:
Obama said he believes in a woman’s Constitutional right to an abortion, but that there is plenty of room for added regulations. “Therefore if a city wants to prohibit abortions except in extremely rare cases by requiring an overwhelming medical need and a court order, I would support such commonsense regulation.”
No way he’d support application of the same rules to his “imaginary” Constitutional rights, but he’d effectively eliminate specific rights like the 2nd Amendment.
