My wife and I don’t hunt. At least not now, but someday we might. We own some acreage that is wooded with a substantial part containing swamp, and yummy edible animals. Recently we were looking for a hunting rifle, and stopped in a Michigan gun shop to see what was available. The consideration that buying a rifle now might be easier than after January 20 partially driving our advanced decision to seek that firearm.
The proprietor, a pretty decent fellow who was glad to show his goods, went from a pretty pleasant mood to somewhat upset when I “joked” about buying now before Obama gets in power. (Although I currently still see a McCain win) he said (Paraphrased) “It isn’t the slightest bit funny. If that man becomes president, I doubt this store will be around for long..” He was dead serious in HIS tone, and the concern was clear. Anyone who reads my words here on a regular basis can only imagine the conversation which followed in the next hour before we left.
Team Obama has issued a number of ads which are designed to allay those fears including one by Ray Shoenke, and another one with a similar tone which have played in Michigan and other Midwest rust belt states. These propaganda pieces assume a lower IQ of the mid western hunters and gun owners, and the inability to discern fiction from fact. Here, is Obama’s stated positions which can be found also on the project VOTE SMART site
Indicate which principles you support (if any) concerning gun issues.
X a) Ban the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
X b) Increase state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
c) Maintain state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
d) Ease state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms.
e) Repeal state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms by law-abiding citizens.
f) Favor allowing citizens to carry concealed firearms.
X g) Require manufacturers to provide child-safety locks with firearms.
h) Other
With a filibuster proof congress, the “stated” positions not only become reality, but also merely a starting point for a number of folks in congress who recognize they will have only a small window in which to implement “control” issues where more of the citizenry is kept down by entitlements, and the others by legislative force.
The gun store owner like many others in Michigan, and the Midwest, was clearly afraid of the nature of what is to come with an Obama presidency, and a complicit congress, and its negative effects on a free society. He has a RIGHT to be.