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President Obama could make reading the telephone book compelling. The other day he took questions at a PBS NewsHour Town Hall event in Indiana. At the end of the interview, one of those questions came from a pro-gun, Second Amendment supporter asking Obama to explain why the president and Hillary Clinton and other Democrats want to regulate guns so much. The asker’s point was a good one in that he used Chicago as an example of a mostly “Democratic-run” municipality with very strict gun laws that has one of the worst gun violence problems in the United States.
Obama began by explaining that there has been a narrative at work for some time that he and other Democrats are trying to take “good people’s” guns. Obama pointed out that he’s been the president for almost eight years, will be leaving office forever in about seven months and has never even suggested confiscating people’s guns. In fact, more people have guns now than ever before. From there he went into a beautiful argument for the need to be able to study and create a well-thought out plan on how to deal with the health problem that is gun violence.
In the end, President Obama was able to eloquently tell the gun lobbyists and right-wing-Second-Amendment-zealots to stop being cowards and get serious if they want to be taken seriously.
It’s worth your time.