I am a Montana native and gun owner, so I was interested when Rachael Maddow did a segment last week about the "gun toting/second amendment lovers" marching on Washington and other "public displays of force" by gun owners in places like Helena, Montana, who are afraid (for no real reason) that the government will take away their guns - again. Every political season, the conservatives trot out the same tired slogans insisting that the Democrats will TAKE YOUR GUNS/KILL YOUR GOD/PROMOTE GAY SEX if elected to stir up the ignorant masses. What is sooo frustrating is that IT WORKS and the media is doing less than nothing to counter the nonsense with reality and easily obtained facts to dispel this perpetual myth.
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Obama has never said that he will take anyone's guns. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't recall Obama even talking about gun control except in the mildest terms. What is baffling to me is that Obama has expanded gun rights more than any President in at least 50 years (someone can check the research on this) when he signed the Credit Card Bill last year that has a provision allowing people with conceal carry licenses from any state to bring guns into national parks for the first time.
I was in Glacier National Park in northern Montana last summer and was surprised to see the brochure handed out by the park service containing a highlighted notice explaining this new right to carry guns into Glacier, Yellowstone, The Grand Canyon and 27 other national parks. Maybe Obama doesn't want the media to report this because it will hurt him with the liberal base, but the right wing nuts don't know it either and they should. I am on a couple of email lists for gun owners and you would not believe the scary emails I get about how Obama is going to take away all guns any minute with rhetoric that comes very close to in-sighting armed rebellion against the "Obama" government to protect the second amendment.
These right wing gun fanatics should be praising Obama for expanding their rights instead of inciting extremists to even higher degrees of hate speech, fear and potential violence. The media, especially Fox News, needs to discuss the reality and facts about Obama's expansion of gun rights whenever guns, tea parties, militias or even Sarah Palin are discussed. I want a reporter to ask Sara Palin what she thinks about the expanded freedom Obama has given her to tote her gun in more places than ever. It is especially important for these facts to be reported this week with gun rallies scheduled for April 19 across the nation and especially near Washington DC.
Most importantly, the general public needs to know that Obama is the first President to expand gun rights so regular thinking people will know these "gun rallies" and "tea parties" have no basis in reality when they make fictitious claims about Obama "taking away freedom" or "expanding government power." Just like showing the hypocrisy of Republicans voting against The Stimulus Bill while taking credit for "stimulus money" improving their own districts, discussing the truth about Obama expanding gun rights will help voters see how extreme and out of touch with reality the gun lobby, gun fanatics and the Tea Party, really is.
Thanks for listening.
Wendy Dickson
Matthews, NC
PS - I am a Montana native, former Republican voting gun owner, who thinks The Rachel Maddow Show is the best news commentary show on television. Thanks Rachel for all that you do and thank God for MSNBC or I would go insane.