Glenn talked on radio today about how President Obama is now joining the chorus of people who are using the Aurora tragedy to push gun control laws. Particularly alarming in his comments were yet another reference to the fact that he’s ‘taken some actions on our own’ because Congress can be frustrating.
Watch a clip of the comments below:
Obama said:
"And where there's an extraordinarily heartbreaking tragedy like the one we saw, there's always an outcry immediately after for action, and there's talk of new reforms and there's talk of new legislation. And too often those efforts are defeated by politics and by lobbying and eventually by the pull of our collective attention elsewhere. But when I said in the wake of Tucson was we were going to stay on this persistently. So we've been able to take some actions on our own, recognizing that it's not always easy to get things through congress these days."
"Do you hear what he just said? We've taken some actions on our own. In other words, we've gone around the Constitution," Glenn said.
Obama continued:
"We recognize the traditions of gun ownership that passed on from generation to generation, that hunting and shooting are part of a cherished national heritage. But I also believe that a lot of gun owners would agree that AK-47s belong in the hands of soldiers, not in the hands of criminals, that they belong on the battlefield of war, not on the streets of our cities."
"How many people here believe that AK‑47s ‑‑ listen to what he just said, that AK‑47s belong in the hands of soldiers over criminals? Do you agree with that?"
Everyone agreed that they do not want automatic weapons in the hands of criminals.
"I don't think slingshots should be in the hands of criminals," Glenn joked.
Glenn said people are being presented with a false choice. They are hearing the common sense "Criminals shouldn't have guns arguments", but what that rationale is being used to restrict gun access to everyone.
"What you're hearing in your head is different than what he just said. What you're hearing is, 'I think a lot of people would agree that soldiers don't want the guns ‑‑ or soldiers should have them and not the American people.' For some reason that's what you hear: 'The American, the average American should not have an AK‑47.' No. No, no, no. Everyone agrees that they shouldn't be ‑‑ I don't want a six‑shooter in the hands of a criminal. It's such a false understanding. It's such a ‑‑ because people are like, 'Yeah, that's common sense. Yeah, I like that.' But that's not what he means," he said.