Obama can't win on gun control

Cullen Linebarger /D.C. Political Buzz Examiner
March 15, 2011

President Barack Obama has given liberals cause for cheer throughout his term in office mostly across the board with health care and financial reform being the biggest victories. But Obama has made one major exception to an otherwise liberal presidency: he has left guns alone.

This may be about to change. Writing in an op-ed Sunday for the Arizona Daily Star, Obama argued that the chilling murders in Tucson over two months ago and other acts of gun violence across America have made reforming America’s gun laws necessary.

As a starting point, the president suggested strengthening the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, the filter that is supposed to keep the wrong people from getting their hands on a gun.

Stepping into the gun debate, though, is a potentially hazardous political calculation for Obama. The last time a president made a serious effort to confront the issue of guns was President Bill Clinton in 1994, when he signed a ten-year Assault Weapons Ban into law (the ban expired in 2004). In November of that year, Democrats suffered a bloodbath at the polls, with the Assault Weapons Ban being a primary reason for this.

The Obama administration as a result is treading carefully. It has conducted informal discussions with groups from both gun-control and gun rights groups, seeking common ground in an effort to introduce a set of new firearms policies.  In order for gun reform to take place, Obama understands that he needs to make the NRA a partner unless he has a political death wish. 

The odds of gun rights groups going along with any plan that could limit 2nd Amendment rights, however, are virtually nil. The president then is left with two options: enforce existing laws more stringently or let the states handle gun reform.  The problem with the former is gun rights groups will spring into action if they think Obama has overreached.  Option two leaves him in the clear.

 Democrats have avoided the gun debate for years because it is a political loser no matter how they try to spin it. Does Obama really want to take that chance with 2012 just around the corner?

http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-washington-dc/obama-can-t-win-on-gun-control