Posted by
Armanius on Wednesday, September 10, 2008 12:01:59 AM
Obama told a crowd of his supporters in Duryea, Pennsylvania that he believes that the Second Amendment is an individual right. When some in the crowd appeared to be unconvinced by his record of supporting gun control legislation, Obama told the crowd "
Even if I want to take them away, I don't have the votes in Congress ..." Obama's remark is problematic on three fronts. First, if he
really believes that bearing arms is an individual right, then why even make this hypothetical? As noted in one of my previous
blogs discussing Obama's flip-flop on gun rights, Obama was probably surprised that the crowd was not taking his statement that he is a supporter of gun rights at its face value. So he thought that this remark would assuage their fears. Second, by making this statement, there is an implication that
if Obama had enough votes in Congress, he would try to pass a law to take guns away. Third, Obama was/is a constitutional lawyer. He graduated from Harvard. If he truly believes that gun rights is an individual right under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, he ought to know that Congress cannot pass a law that violates the Constitution. So either Obama truly believes that gun rights is
not an individual right under the Constitution (and is thus lying to people), or he just doesn't know his law. Sort of like the 57 states in our country. I am not sure which one is worse - a liar or someone that did not go to class when law was taught in law school. You decide.