Issues

Gun Rights

Obama opposes weapon confiscation during emergencies

Barack Obama voted for the Vitter amendment to HR 5441, which banned the confiscation of firearms during "an emergency or major disaster."  This amendment was proposed by Louisiana Senator David Vitter in the wake of news reports that law enforcement officials confiscated legally-owned weapons during Hurricane Katrina. [SA 4615 to HR 5441, Vote #202, 7/13/06]

Obama supports Second Amendment rights

According to Barack Obama's website, he "believes the Second Amendment creates an individual right, and he respects the Constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms.  He will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns. [Sportsmen for Obama flyer, accessed 10/7/08]

In an undated interview with Field & Stream magazine, Obama said:

"I am very mindful of the fact that sportsmen in America may have gone hunting with their fathers, their grandfathers, their mothers, their grandmothers, and that this is part of a tradition and a way of life that has to be preserved. And there's nothing that I will do as president of the United States that will in any way encroach on the ability of sportsmen to continue that tradition." [FieldandStream.com, accessed 10/6/08]

McCain also supports Second Amendment rights

According to his website, McCain also supports our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. [JohnMcCain.com, accessed 10/7/08]

NRA has "misrepresented" Obama's supported for Second Amendment rights

The nonpartisan FactCheck.org criticized the NRA's ad campaign, saying the ad "twisted and misrepresented Obama's record."  And the Ashville Citizen-Times said that the NRA "twist[ed] Barack Obama's position on the Second Amendment beyond recognition" and "cooked up" the attacks "almost out of whole cloth." [FactCheck.org, 9/29/08; Ashville Citizen-Times editorial, 9/29/08]

FactCheck.org:

Much of what the NRA passes off as Obama's "10 Point Plan to 'Change' the Second Amendment" is actually contrary to what he has said throughout his campaign: that he "respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms" and "will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns."

The NRA, however, simply dismisses Obama's stated position as "rhetoric" and substitutes its own interpretation of his record as a secret "plan." Said an NRA spokesman: "We believe our facts."

Perhaps so, but believing something doesn't make it so. And we find the NRA has cherry-picked, twisted and misrepresented Obama's record to come up with a bogus "plan." [FactCheck.org, 9/29/08]

Obama DOES NOT support banning hunting ammunition

FactCheck.org went on to state that Obama DID NOT vote to ban "virtually all deer hunting ammunition."  Obama voted for an amendment that would have banned "handgun ammunition ‘capable of penetrating body armor'" and "rifle ammunition that is ‘designed or marketed as having armor piercing capability.'"  Even the amendment's sponsor, Ted Kennedy, stated that the amendment did not apply to hunting ammunition. [FactCheck.org, 9/29/08; SA 1615 to S 397, Vote #217, 7/29/05]