What Does a Second Obama Term Mean for Gun Owners?

By Katie Pavlich
http://www.townhall.com
November 6, 2012

During the second presidential debate of 2012, President Barack Obama said, “What I’m trying to do is get a broader conversation about how we reduce the violence generally. Part of it, is seeing if we can get an assault weapons ban reintroduced.”

You can bet he meant what he said. Obama has a long history of holding anti-Second Amendment views, despite portraying himself as pro-hunter and reasonable about gun control. A second term spells trouble for law-abiding citizens wanting to exercise their right to keep and bear arms: Obama is strongly opposed to concealed carry, has supported gun owner licensing and gun registration and voted to ban semi-automatic rifles, handguns and ammunition during his time in the Illinois State Senate. He even voted for the criminal prosecution of those who use a firearm in self-defense.

“I don’t believe that people should be able to own guns,” Obama told author and economist John Lott, according to an interview Lott did on the Michael Medved Show in 2008.

The effects of a second Obama term will reach far beyond the next four years and will have grave consequences for gun owners. If re-elected, Obama will have as many as three opportunities to place more anti-Second Amendment judges on the Supreme Court… for life. During his first term, he appointed Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, both of whom, as you might expect, have staunch anti-Second Amendment records.

First Lady Michelle Obama understands the power her husband holds should he receive another four years.

“We’re going to make a choice that will impact our lives for decades to come… let’s not forget what it meant when my husband appointed those two brilliant Supreme Court justices… let’s not forget the impact that their decisions will have on our lives for decades to come,” she said during a February 2012 campaign event in Beverly Hills, California.

With the possibility of an Obama re-election and tipping of the Supreme Court in favor of anti-Second Amendment legislation, crucial decisions like Heller and McDonald will be seriously threatened with being overturned. Remember, these cases were both decided with a majority of only 5-4 in favor of upholding the Second Amendment rights of Americans.

But Obama’s anti-Second Amendment agenda won’t stop at the Supreme Court. He’ll have the opportunity to flood the federal courts by filling over half of all federal judgeships with anti-gun fanatics who will rule in favor of Obama’s anti-gun ideology. This will then allow anti-gun interest groups to flood the court system with lawsuits to infringe upon rights of law abiding gun owners.

In Obama’s first term, we’ve already seen more gun regulations and registration requirements in Southwest border states, requiring gun dealers to report the sale of any law abiding citizen purchasing more than one semi-automatic rifle at a time. This new regulation was implemented through the Department of Justice headed by anti-gun zealot Eric Holder, whose minions ran the lethal Fast and Furious operation and still blame law abiding gun dealers for the violence that resulted from the program in Mexico and the United States. In the 1995, Holder suggested we “brainwash people” against guns and his current Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer supports the registration of all firearms.

“I’ll also ask the school board to make a part of every day some kind of anti-violence, anti-gun message,” then U.S. Attorney for Washington D.C. Holder said in 1995. “We need to do this every day of the week and just really brainwash people into thinking about guns in a vastly different way.”

On top of having a friend in Holder, Obama has loyalists positioned across the country actively interested in taking away the Second Amendment rights of Americans. New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg endorsed President Obama last week citing climate change, but the two also have an anti-gun ideology in common. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel adds more danger to a second Obama term and all three will work together to severely restrict the types of firearms citizens can buy. We’ve already seen the Obama administration block the importation of M1 Garand rifles into the United States and a second term only opens the door for the ban of the majority of imported firearms, including guns popular with hunters, sport shooters and collectors.

Finally, we can classify the first four years of the Obama administration as an imperial presidency. Scandal after scandal, including Fast and Furious, it is clear President Obama and his cronies believe they are above the law. In 2011, President Obama ignored a provision in the 2012 omnibus spending bill banning him from using taxpayer money to advocate for more gun control.  Regulation is how Obama gets things done and a second term will allow him to achieve his gun control dream of infringing upon Americans’ Second Amendment rights.  In an election in which voters are understandably focused on economic issues, it's important to remember the underhanded methods at the president's executive disposal. Based on his record, it is likely he will choose to implement those methods in a second term.