Sportsmen for Obama? - Obama 2001 Pushing Local Gun Control

Obama 2001 Pushing Local Gun Control

Friday, 18 April 2008

Running for the Illinois state Senate in October 2001, Barack Obama says that there should be local control of firearm law.

In 2001, Obama was one of just nine senators to vote against a bill that toughened penalties for violent crimes committed during gang activity. Obama said the law did not clearly define a gang member and he questioned why lawmakers were targeting Hispanics and blacks for stiffer sentences.

Two years earlier, after the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, Obama voted "present" on a bill requiring juveniles to be prosecuted as adults for firing a firearm on or near school property.

Obama also voted against a bill permitting gun owners to claim self-defense when using a gun in their homes if the local community bans the use of handguns. Obama said municipalities should control local gun regulations, not the state.

"That law eviscerated anti-handgun ordinances in some communities," Obama said. "The way I feel, Wilmette should not determine Mattoon's firearms ordinances and Mattoon should not determine Wilmette's."

His desire to not "eviscerated anti-handgun ordinances in some communities" is curious as just 3 years later he wanted to write federal law to step on all state and local pro-concealed carry law.

The common thread between this article and Obama 2004 Pushing Federal Gun Control is not who controls firearm law, but the fact of gun control. Obama comes across as for all gun control law and against all gun rights law.

From David Mendell, "Obama's record a plus, a minus ; Votes in Senate defy easy labels," Chicago Tribune, October 8, 2004.

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