Obama Heard Us! Or Maybe Not.

The Brady Campaign is famous for trying to make mountains out of molehills. So it is with their release regarding President Barack Obama's op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star which may or may not have called for background checks for private sales depending on how you read it. They are claiming that Obama heard their plea to "lead a national conversation" on gun control. Or as they put it, gun violence.

While they may want to portray it as from their lips to Obama's ears, when you have a line in the op-ed that says, "Some will say that anything short of the most sweeping anti-gun legislation is a capitulation to the gun lobby", I don't think he was paying too much attention to your calls for more bans, background checks, etc.

Paul Helmke Statement Regarding President Obama's Op-Ed On Gun Control
Mar 13, 2011


WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke today issued the following statement in response to President Obama's Sunday op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star, titled, "We Must Reach Agreement on Gun Reforms":

"Strengthening the background check system for gun purchasers has been the signature issue for the Brady Campaign since the shooting of Jim Brady during the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan 30 years ago this month. The efforts of Jim and Sarah Brady, along with countless others, finally resulted in the Brady Law which went into effect just 17 years ago and requires federally licensed gun dealers to do background checks.

"Since that time, we have worked to make the Brady background check system more effective by strengthening the definitions of those who had already shown themselves to be too dangerous or irresponsible to own guns; by pushing for legislation to encourage states to send more records into the Brady database; and by working to close the loophole that allows private sellers to sell guns to strangers without a background check, something exploited primarily at gun shows around the country. These efforts helped lead to domestic violence abusers being blocked from buying guns and to the creation of new incentives, after Virginia Tech, for states to add their records of mentally dangerous individuals to the computer database.

"Less than a week after the shootings in Tucson, the Brady Campaign called on President Obama to lead a national conversation about preventing gun violence. With the op-ed published in the Arizona Daily Star, we believe that President Obama has heard our plea on behalf of the 100,000 Americans injured and killed by guns each year, including the more than 2,000 who have died by guns since Congresswoman Giffords and those with her were attacked on January 8. We are looking forward to working with him to engage the nation, and our Congress, on how to protect more Americans from the threat of gun violence.

"The Brady Campaign agrees with President Obama that we can stanch the bloodshed, while still respecting Second Amendment rights. We agree with him that it makes no sense for dangerous people to be able to arm themselves so easily. While more needs to be done to make our communities safer, this is the most significant statement from the White House on gun violence prevention in over a decade.

"We should all, regardless of party or ideology, be working, as the President said, on 'preventing future bloodshed' and forging 'a nation worthy of our children's futures'. "