Raw Story
In an New Republic article published Sunday, the president said he had a “profound respect” for the nation’s hunting traditions and that to dismiss them out of hand in the course of the debate would be “a big mistake”.
“If you grew up and your dad gave you a hunting rifle when you were 10, and you went out and spent the day with him and uncles, and that became part of your family’s traditions, you can see why you’d be pretty protective of that,” he said.
Obama's package of gun control efforts has, as we all know, encountered fierce resistance from people who - somehow - see it as an infringement on the Second Amendment but Obama addresses that by bluntly stating he respects the Second Amendment 'and the rights of individual gun owners'. I doubt most of the fervent 2nd Amendmenters who hold stock in the "Obama is going to ban guns' paranoia will believe or be able to hear this., but there it is.
I can't say I have ever had the first reason to think Obama dreams of banning guns and this, for the time being, reinforces that idea.
The comment led on to an apparent defence of gun ownership for the purposes of sport or hunting. Obama noted that it was important to understand that“the reality of guns in urban areas are very different from the realities of guns in rural areas”.
Bridging that gap of understanding “is going to be part of the biggest task over the next several months,” the president said, adding: “And that means that advocates of gun controls have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes.”
Obama has had to weather the storms of the NRA and pro-gun culture; now he's suggesting that gun control culture needs to open their ears a bit and hear the sounds of reality.
I imagine he knows what he is talking about.