Obama calls on candidates to support gun reform

In an intense but civil town-hall-style event broadcast live on television, gun rights activists repeatedly pressed President Barack Obama last night (Jan 7) to justify his gun control efforts, putting him on the defensive over an issue that has divided the nation’s capital and the presidential campaign trail.

Earlier this week a tearful Obama said he would bypass Congress and take limited measures to tackle US gun violence.

First, he gave no specifics, so how can he possibly say that “an overwhelming majority of Americans, including gun owners” support these initiatives?

Cox immediately defended his decision to sit out the town hall. And Taya Kyle, the late wife of Chris Kyle, whose actions were depicted in the film, “American Sniper”, voiced concerns over tighter gun control protecting Americans. Cleo Pendleton, whose daughter was killed in Chicago, asked a question about gun trafficking. “Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everyone’s guns away so that we can impose Martial law is a conspiracy? It’s a great advertising mechanism”, Obama said. “When would I have started on this enterprise?” He said the NRA was refusing to acknowledge the government’s responsibility to make legal products safer, citing seatbelts and child-proof medicine bottles as examples. The event, titled Guns in America, is taking place in Virginia, not far from the NRA’s national headquarters. “That’s not as broad as a piece of legislation would be so ultimately moving public opinion so that Congress is less afraid of the gun lobby is part of the answer for President Obama and what he’s trying to do”.

“There is a reason why the NRA is not here”, Obama said.

The television special comes two days after Obama announced a modest series of executive actions meant to better enforce existing gun laws, primarily by cracking down on unlicensed gun dealers who evade background checks by selling guns for profit at gun shows and online.

President Obama is expected to sign an executive order expanding federal background checks on gun purchases.

A CNN spokesman informed the Washington Post, “the audience would be evenly divided between organizations that support the Second Amendment including NRA members as well as groups that back gun regulation”.

Barack Obama attacked the “imaginary fiction” that he wants to confiscate firearms during a town hall meeting on gun control on Thursday, bemoaning the National Rifle Association’s consistent mischaracterisation of his position on the issue.

“You know what a gun-free zone is for a sicko?”