Gun Groups Fearmonger: Obama Is Discriminating Against Firearm Owners
Gun Groups Fearmonger: Obama Is Discriminating Against Firearm Owners
The Obama transition team is requiring that all potential hires for high-ranking positions fill out a seven-page questionnaire with questions about the applicant’s financial history, affiliations, professional background, legal history, and domestic help. Question #59 deals with gun ownership:
This question has raised the ire of gun-rights groups and their allies, who are charging that Obama plans to revoke the second amendment and has a “distaste for firearm owners”:
National Rifle Association: This week, it became clear that the new administration’s anti-gun agenda even infects the process of staffing the administration. … One thing is for sure: If the Obama team thinks these are good questions to ask job applicants, it’s only a matter of time before they’ll want to ask the rest of us, too.
Illinois State Rifle Association: “Question 59 provides clear insight into how Obama and his people perceive firearm owners,” said ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. The questionnaire poses a number of questions asking the applicant to reveal any unethical activities, or embarrassing Internet chats, then wraps up by asking if anyone in the applicant’s family owns a firearm. Obviously, Obama feels that owning a firearm is akin to talking dirty in Internet chat rooms.”
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): “Millions of law-abiding Americans own firearms and they should not be discriminated against. The questionnaire already seeks information about illegal activity so there is no reason to ask this question unless the Obama Administration plans to use it to discriminate based on lawful activity. For this reason, I will seek to enact legislation to prohibit this type of discrimination.”
The point of the question was not to weed out gun owners, but rather “to ensure proper registration,” as transition spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter has explained. ABC’s Jake Tapper further notes that “the question is not meant to be any different in scope than the one about whether the Obama Administration candidate has run afoul of any law or regulation, ever gotten a traffic ticket of more than $50 in fines, and so on.”
The NRA is doing all it can to profit off its fearmongering about the Obama administration. Nationwide, gun stores are holding “Obama Sale” events to take advantage of their customers’ misinformed fears. A gun show ad in yesterday’s Washington Post also warned that the “new administration will attempt to make changes to firearms regulations! GET YOUR GUNS WHILE YOU STILL CAN!!!” Naturally, people who signed up or renewed their NRA membership were promised free admission to the show.
Vice President-elect Joe Biden, by the way, is also a gun owner. He has called the NRA’s fearmongering “malarkey.”
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I fear that the constitutional right to bear arms has been overtaken by the constitutional right to be an idiot….
November 17th, 2008 at 5:12 pmJust as living without healthcare can kill you, Americans are discovering that guns are killing more Americans than poor health care.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:12 pmThe Obama administration is just encouraging safe and legal gun ownership.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:13 pmThey wouldn’t want one of their staff mistaking another for a small brown bird, would they?
I wonder how sales of the ultimate redneck movie, “Red Dawn”, are doing?
November 17th, 2008 at 5:16 pmIs there a question on there about ever having been a pedophile?
November 17th, 2008 at 5:19 pmIf so, why aren’t republicans everywhere outraged?
“One thing is for sure: If the Obama team thinks these are good questions to ask job applicants, it’s only a matter of time before they’ll want to ask the rest of us, too.”
Umm…you’d think the NRA would have heard of the background check that’s been in effect for years, wouldn’t you?
November 17th, 2008 at 5:20 pmCue Darlyy clamoring for his right to slaughter baby deer.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:20 pmIs there a question on there about ever having been a pervert?
November 17th, 2008 at 5:20 pmIf so, why aren’t republicans everywhere outraged?
And people buy record amounts of new guns as a result of the fearmongering. There’s a sucker born every minute.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:21 pmThis is such unbelievable BS. Obama isn’t persecuting gun owners anymore than he is users of e-mail and text messaging, or people with Facebook accounts. This is one question out of a questionnaire that does a very thorough job of vetting (and this is question #59 — can you imagine what the 58 questions before it wanted to know?). We already know that anyone wanting a job in his administration is subject to having all their web pages and electronic communication scrutinized.
There’s a reason why Obama is being this careful. If he inadvertently hired someone who once had a lapsed gun registration, or someone who owned a firearm that had been involved in an unauthorized shooting, you can bet his political enemies would be all over him about that. After all, there are people who wanted to make him accountable for things his pastor said.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:24 pmI understand that law-abiding diary owners are up in arms, so to speak, about this questionnaire, too. Who wants to think about jackbooted thugs storming into your closets to find that diary you maintained when you were a teenager? OMG. That’s all I have to say.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:24 pmGun Groups Fearmonger: Obama Is Discriminating Against Firearm Owners»
– - That was some great inauguration speech Obama gave, eh?
Oh, wait….
November 17th, 2008 at 5:28 pmThe fear-mongering has gone on for a long time. Recently, two weeks or so before the election, I got a recorded call from an IRA-Republican spewing the same shit.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:29 pmWith each new sentence I shouted “Bullshit”.
You nailed it, misshusseinmolly. I would bet that there are questions about the legal and immigration status of any domestic employees or contractors too.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:30 pmDja spose the gun lobby wants to use this to, like, sell more guns?
November 17th, 2008 at 5:31 pm“The questionnaire poses a number of questions asking the applicant to reveal any unethical activities, or embarrassing Internet chats, then wraps up by asking if anyone in the applicant’s family owns a firearm. Obviously, Obama feels that owning a firearm is akin to talking dirty in Internet chat rooms.”
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No, Obama doesn’t have a problem with legal gun ownership and legal gun use, just as he has no problem with people who conduct themselves properly in public communications media, such as chat rooms, internet forums, and social networking websites.
What Obama is after is anything that could be an embarrassment to his administration. Owning a gun isn’t embarrassing. Not having it registered is embarrassing. Discharging it improperly is embarrassing. There’s a difference.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:34 pmI think that questionnaire was for the PLUM jobs (the political appointees) and I doubt that anyone who wanted one of those jobs and was willing to expose themselves are life members of the NRA.
There are far more important things that the next president has to do than stirring up the gun confiscation pot and I figure that Obama learned from the Clinton administration that if he doesn’t get his agenda moving in the first hundred days, he will never get it done.
Besides, the worst thing happened to the NRA, they got their wish. Now they have no over-riding purpose in life (well, there is that hunting and gun safety thing, but that does not bring in the cash) they have to cling to what they know best, fear mongering. I hope that the NRA undergoes a reshaping of their image. I am a gun owner and relish the second amendment victories, but the NRA is not doing itself any favors as long as the present group runs it.
I won’t hold my breath.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:36 pmThe Virginia Tech Shooter was treated for MENTAL Illness, and was still able to purchase Hand Guns. Obviously, the Background Checks leave something to be desired.
There should be No excuse for this, in our High Tech World.
But Obama is Not going to take Guns away from anyone who can legally have them. Gun Control cost Al Gore LOTS of votes in 2000, and the Democrats have wised up.
The NRA’s Cassandra Like Warnings will boost Membership and Gun Sales…but will not become reality .
November 17th, 2008 at 5:36 pmThe grimy necked cattlemen and flea infested cowgirls in my neighborhood are still stumping around saying Obama is going to take their guns away.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:37 pmPoor little doggies.
They won’t be able to shoot at the coyotes, and the odd elk that crosses the road in front of them; as they round up the cattle that graze on public lands they pay a dollar an acre a year to feed them on.
Where’s Tracy_5?
November 17th, 2008 at 5:38 pmI can only wish that he would take the idiots guns away…
….there should be an IQ and personality test for gun ownership…
….well, that would take most of the guns out of the hands of the NRA crowd.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:40 pmNational Rifle Association: This week, it became clear that the new administration’s anti-gun agenda even infects the process of staffing the administration. … One thing is for sure: If the Obama team thinks these are good questions to ask job applicants, it’s only a matter of time before they’ll want to ask the rest of us, too.
This kind of ignorance is dangerous to our Democracy, and no responsible medium should have published it without refuting its stupidity at the same time. This is typical Republican Party straw man tactics. The questions that ooffend the NRA are being asked of people seeking jobs as public servants, not everyone else. And we the people have every right to know if the people who will be working on our behalf (and that’s our behalf, not Corporate America’s) are law-abiding citizens. To even question how long it would be before they make all of us fill out that questionnaire is stupidity on such a high scale, that they ought to be shunned from future public policy discussions.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pmdbadass Says:
Where’s Tracy_5
Still working on question number 2.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:43 pmI’m well armed in case the racists and bigots and christ-o-nuts get carried away. Republics are more likely than Democrats to confiscate guns from private citizens. NRA needs to open their eyes and quit being a tool for the right wing extremists.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:45 pmJB, I totally agree. I have repeatedly asserted my support for the 2nd amendment even more in the last 7 years…being afraid I’d have to defend myself against my own government. This TX liberal just wishes the other provisions in the bill of rights were as revered as much as the 2nd amendment….
November 17th, 2008 at 5:53 pmFour years from now when they all still have their guns, are they going to admit they were wrong?
That’s all I’m asking here. If Obama takes away everyone’s guns, I’ll admit I was wrong and apologize. If he doesn’t, then they should.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:53 pmPrepare for eight years of feigned outrage over anything and everything. “They” are starting before the guy even puts his ass in the chair.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:55 pmI think they ought to screen out anybody who’s ever shot himself in the foot, on the grounds that they are probably a Republican right-winger.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:56 pmElBruce Says:
Four years from now when they all still have their guns, are they going to admit they were wrong?
That’s all I’m asking here. If Obama takes away everyone’s guns, I’ll admit I was wrong and apologize. If he doesn’t, then they should.
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Yeah, THAT’ll happen. It is more likely that they will wait two more years then tell everyone how Obama TRIED to take their guns but they fought him off with their bare hands. There is no limit to the delusions Rightwingnuts will push
November 17th, 2008 at 5:58 pmI can speak from experience on this issue. I am still recovering from a very serious injury – the result of a .45 in an attempt to murder moi. In the past I have been a gun owner. Living in NYC I am not.
I do believe in the 2nd Amend; I also believe in sensible gun control including registration, closing gun show loop holes and banning certain types of ammunition.
November 17th, 2008 at 5:59 pmI have no beef with reasonable gun ownership. Still with the exception of hunting, I have yet to find anyone who can not survive perfectly fine without them
November 17th, 2008 at 6:03 pmI mostly agree too but who needs a fully autmatic rifle? Where do you draw the line, there has to be one.
The tommy 45 fully automatic has been illegal since the 30’s.
Other countries have guns and don’t have the deaths we do. We are a very violent society.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:03 pmOne must remember that these are not the most rational people on the planet. The worst gleefully hoard weapons to fight the same troops they claim to fanatically support. They refuse a national weapons license then blame “librul judges” when a known criminal gets a hold of a weapon. And, despite all the crimes committed with legally acquired weapons, it never occurs to them that the laws should be changed or more rigorously enforced.
Dealing with compartmentalized “thinking” like that is about as easy as herding cats.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:05 pmAlways pooping their pants about something.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:12 pmI have also never met anyone that has ever suggested banning all “firearms”
November 17th, 2008 at 6:16 pmGuns and booze don’t mix. Just ask Cheney. I’d also say that guns and those intoxicated on religion should also not mix. Guns are serious business (in more ways than one). Perhaps school age children should all be taught the basics of gun responsibilities and handling skills. Many gun accidents could be prevented.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:18 pmMaybe the Obama team just wants to be reassured that no gun owners have shot their friends in the face while hunting crippled pigeons.
Just sayin’.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:46 pmFred Says:
Where do you draw the line, there has to be one.
There’s the problem. If one adopts “five rounds” as a hypothetical the trolls go apescat.
Any “line” that’s proposed is rejected out of habit so no new “lines” are enacted to reflect modern developments. The authors of the Constitution existed in a world where if someone “went postal” they got off one shot and then got beaten to death with a chair. I’m pretty sure they never dreamed of being able to carry the firepower of a 19th century infantry platoon in one’s pocket.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:56 pmAs long as the gun dealers are making money all things are good.
November 17th, 2008 at 6:58 pmThat’s a little unfair, gummitch. One of the most frequently pursued, and strongly resisted, gun laws is a simple mandate that all sales of firearms and ammo must be conducted by a federally licensed gun merchant. Reputable dealers welcome such legislation.
Oddly. Much of the resistance to such laws are not, as one may think, a underworld of amoral gunrunners and paranoid survivalists but “big box-stores”. And the gun/ammo corporations get the boost of mass marketing and volume sales. While shady dealers do exist and take their just portion of the blame for incidents, the lawyers who lobby to keep laws lax are paid by volume retailers rather than “gun dealers”.
November 17th, 2008 at 7:13 pmIf our new President’s record on the Constitution is any guide, then all the people jamming gun shows and gun stores are right!
We need to get all the guns we can before he get’s into office!
November 17th, 2008 at 9:21 pmFred,
“Other countries have guns and don’t have the deaths we do. We are a very violent society.”
No, we are just a society that doesn’t properly PUNISH criminal behavior!
November 17th, 2008 at 9:24 pmFred,
#2 “Americans are discovering that guns are killing more Americans than poor health care.”
No, it’s more accurate to state that criminals kill more people than poor health care. A lot of them use guns to do it.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:26 pmHi Tim. You are sort of full of shit aren’t you?
November 17th, 2008 at 9:43 pmTim Vaculik Says:
No, we are just a society that doesn’t properly PUNISH criminal behavior!
November 17th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Right. That’s why the US has the highest incarceration rate per capita IN THE WORLD.
Moron.
November 17th, 2008 at 9:48 pmHi Zooey, You on the other hand are not!
November 17th, 2008 at 9:50 pmNo db, my eyes are definitely not brown. ;)
November 17th, 2008 at 9:51 pmTim Vaculik babbles:
If our new President’s record on the Constitution is any guide, then all the people jamming gun shows and gun stores are right!
As opposed to the previous president who was punctiliously respectful of that “god-damn piece of paper” as he called it -right?
November 17th, 2008 at 9:57 pmTim Vaculik babbles:
If our new President’s record on the Constitution is any guide, then all the people jamming gun shows and gun stores are right!
—
November 17th, 2008 at 9:59 pmIs it too much to ask for Tim Vaculik to substantiate any of this bs with something concrete? I suppose it may be as I am still trying to figure out how he figured out that climate disruption is a nonissue.
Tim BSculik’s MO is strangely similar to Tracy_5’s: Wait until the end of the day, then post a flurry of replies to random comments by other people; his replies having little or no substance, and seemingly no point either.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:01 pmTim Vaculik Says:
If our new President’s record on the Constitution is any guide, then all the people jamming gun shows and gun stores are right!
We need to get all the guns we can before he get’s into office!
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You are just an ignorant hivemind punk brainwashed by your Limborg masters. Yes I think you ought to take that gun, go into the next room and do the right thing. You are using oxygen that someone with a functioning brainpan could be using
November 17th, 2008 at 10:09 pmI wonder if the Reichwhiners would be so outraged if employers started requesting urine samples from prospective employees?
Wait a minute..!
November 17th, 2008 at 10:09 pmTim Vaculik Says:
Fred,
“Other countries have guns and don’t have the deaths we do. We are a very violent society.”
No, we are just a society that doesn’t properly PUNISH criminal behavior!
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We imprison FAR more people than any other country in the world. We are one of the only civilized countries in the world with the death penalty what are you suggesting we do napalm nieghborhoods with high crime rates. You do realize you are an ignorant brainwashed moron and nothing you say makes ANY sense dont you? Will you ever catch on that the hivemind idiocy you have been programmed with just makes you look like a fool when you regurgitate it?
November 17th, 2008 at 10:12 pmI wonder if the Reichwhiners would be so outraged if the government started telling people they can’t list their lovers as next of kin or beneficiaries?
Wait a minute..!
November 17th, 2008 at 10:13 pmdbadass Says:
Tim Vaculik babbles:
If our new President’s record on the Constitution is any guide, then all the people jamming gun shows and gun stores are right!
—
Is it too much to ask for Tim Vaculik to substantiate any of this bs with something concrete? I suppose it may be as I am still trying to figure out how he figured out that climate disruption is a nonissue.
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Thats easy. The same way he ALWAYS figures out what he believes. IT was what he was TOLD to believe.
November 17th, 2008 at 10:20 pmAny chance that the NRA and gun industry are using this to increase their sales and contributions to them ?
November 17th, 2008 at 10:31 pmI still can’t help but be amused by the tortured “logic” the Reichwhiners follow. In the same breath they will label anyone who questions Uncle Sugar’s military a “traitor” while they sit on an arsenal just in case said military comes after them.
WTF? Do they have any conception of how implausible it is that the U.S. military would ever be turned lose on the common citizens?
November 17th, 2008 at 10:47 pmand might I add that they deem it the patroitic thing to do. It is really odd when you think about it. They also have a tendency to worship freaks that hole themselves up with lots of weapons because they don’t want to pay taxes to support the same society they claim to be the greatest and get pissed when the government has to intervene. Well so long as they are holed up white folk. They weren’t so into that hole MOVE thing…
November 17th, 2008 at 11:00 pmpete Says:
Do they have any conception of how implausible it is that the U.S. military would ever be turned lose on the common citizens?
But if the US military was ever called to storm a compound run by these reichwingers, there is no way they could stop the onslaught of a well-trained, disciplined, well-equipped military force.
Why, Koresh couldn’t stop the FBI from raiding his compound, and the Bureau doesn’t have the same kind of firepower the military do (airplanes, helicopters, rockets, etc.)
Reichwingers are too wrapped up in their paranoid delusions to try to make any sense whatsoever…
November 17th, 2008 at 11:21 pmExactly! We are holding untold guys with funny names, and a few with regular U.S. names, in indefinite detention, or bombing them and their families, for allegedly palling around with a bunch of guys with guns and plotting to attack U.S. citizens.
Yet, if 1% of what one sees online has a grain of truth? There are untold thousands of guys with guns and regular U.S. names sitting around and plotting to attack U.S. citizens.
And I agree. Casual ownership of high capacity military weapons, on the grounds of self-defense, is asinine.
November 18th, 2008 at 2:01 amOddly, owning a gun seems to make people more fearful. Is there anyone more scared of things than a gun guy?
November 18th, 2008 at 6:51 amAward to 48 Tim Vaculick for bringng up the oldie but goodie:
Guns don’t kill people. People (criminals) kill people.
Of course when 2 kids sneak into their dad’s closet and the loaded gun falls down and discharges, I guess the cat was the criminal.
November 18th, 2008 at 3:19 pmReplace the word “gun” with “car”.
OMG, they’re going to get rid of all of the polluting SUV’s, trucks, buses and EVERYTHING!!! We’ll have to (GASP) walk!
November 18th, 2008 at 4:02 pmIf what you think we have in this country is proper punishement for violent crime, then I can’t help you.
and I have substantiated my assertions vis-avis Obama’s record on guns!
No B.S., just the facts. If you think he respects the second amendment, then you are probably one of those folks who just believes whatever they are told.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:11 pmIt’s funny how it’s okay to ask if someone owns a gun, yet people would scream bloody murder if the application asked for sexual orientation or religious beliefs.
November 30th, 2008 at 4:08 amWhat you forget is that warfare isn’t always symmetrical. The ATF may have massacred the Branch Davidians, but Timothy McVeigh killed even more people in retaliation and he spent a lot less money and time doing so.
The US military may have rockets, bombs, and aircraft, but a bunch of Iranians with 40 year old AK-47s have brought the war in Iraq to a stalemate.
November 30th, 2008 at 4:15 amPerry logan Says:
People who advocate “gun control”.
November 30th, 2008 at 4:17 ampete Says:
Who said the arsenal was for using against the military? It would be far easier to take up arms against the crooked politicians that’s commanding the military.
November 30th, 2008 at 4:25 amrmwarnick Says:
A guess Joe Biden is a closet Republican, as he shot himself in the foot with a shotgun a number of years ago.
November 30th, 2008 at 4:29 amSo, now His “O”liness’s administration anounces they want the aledged “assault weapons” ban back (uwww, sounds scary) at least those of us who own guns responsibly and are so “fearful” according to some of the posters here are not frightened by incorrect names or by the way a particular gun looks.
Let’s see, public campaign money, no “old politicians can bring change”, no lobbiests, “I don’t want to take their guns,” so far the ONLY thing your guy hasn’t lied about is wanting to spread Joe the plumber’s money around.
So how,exactly, does it make gun owner’s paranoid when time after time we are proven right? And please don’t be confused, the Constitution says nothing about hunting or sporting. It says the people have the right to keep and bear arms. I don’t golf, so it isn’t my place to tell someone who does how many clubs he “needs” to enjoy his hobby, what gives anyone the right to tell me how many guns or how many rounds in a gun I need to enjoy mine? Certainly not the government according to the Consitution.
I don’t have any tatoos, but I guess someone earlier here associated tatoos with guns. I can say they are similar in one respect. Those with guns, like those with tatoos, do not care if you do not care to have one. This ban has nothing to do with assault rifles (always been illegal without FFL and special tax, by definition an assault rifle can fire fully automatic). And it has nothing to do with the blood bath in MX, I am in the border towns two or three times a month on business I know many locals and the problem isn’t U.S. gun shows and semi-auto rifles. The government you look to to solve all problems created this one. We declare “War on Drugs” to drive up the profit margin then send guns and money to corrupt South American politicians who sell them to the cartels who use the ex commandos we trained to fight drugs to do their killing.
Now go outside and put a big sign in your front yard, “I AM PROUD TO LIVE IN A GUN FREE HOME” and sleep well tonight.
February 26th, 2009 at 8:48 pmOBAMA’S RECORDE IS TOTAL GUN CONTROL,THIS SOCIALISTIC NUT JOB,WANT’S ALL YOUR AMMO TOO.TAXING AMMO WILL GO UP SOON.LOCK AND LOAD THERE COMMING FOR THEM.
April 7th, 2009 at 4:22 pm