{"id":11647,"date":"2012-07-26T07:42:33","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T12:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/?p=11647"},"modified":"2012-07-26T07:42:33","modified_gmt":"2012-07-26T12:42:33","slug":"obamas-full-remarks-on-guns-from-urban-league-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/2012\/07\/26\/obamas-full-remarks-on-guns-from-urban-league-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama\u2019s Full Remarks On Guns From Urban League Speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Talking Points Memo<\/em> has a transcript of Obama\u2019s Full Remarks On Guns From Urban League Speech<\/strong><\/a>. I don’t believe these have been conveniently edited to make it seem that Obama said the opposite of what he actually said.\u00a0 I think the excerpt below is also faithful to the spirit of what he said.<\/p>\n

But what I said in the wake of Tucson was we were going to stay on this, persistently.\u00a0 So we\u2019ve been able to take some actions on our own, recognizing that it\u2019s not always easy to get things through Congress these days.\u00a0 The background checks conducted on those looking to purchase firearms are now more thorough and more complete.\u00a0 Instead of just throwing more money at the problem of violence, the federal government is now in the trenches with communities and schools and law enforcement and faith-based institutions, with outstanding mayors like Mayor Nutter and Mayor Landrieu \u2013 recognizing that we are stronger when we work together.<\/p>\n

So in cities like New Orleans, we\u2019re partnering with local officials to reduce crime, using best practices.\u00a0 And in places like Boston and Chicago, we\u2019ve been able to help connect more young people to summer jobs so that they spend less time on the streets.\u00a0 In cities like Detroit and Salinas, we\u2019re helping communities set up youth prevention and intervention programs that steer young people away from a life of gang violence, and towards the safety and promise of a classroom.<\/p>\n

But even though we\u2019ve taken these actions, they\u2019re not enough.\u00a0 Other steps to reduce violence have been met with opposition in Congress.\u00a0 This has been true for some time \u2013 particularly when it touches on the issues of guns.\u00a0 And I, like most Americans, believe that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual the right to bear arms.\u00a0 And we recognize the traditions of gun ownership that passed on from generation to generation -\u2013 that hunting and shooting are part of a cherished national heritage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

By contrast, Mitt Romney seems to have said that he doesn’t think there needs to be any new laws about guns.\u00a0 As John Stewart pointed out in his commentary, there are people who think we need to pass laws about wearing costumes to movie theaters.\u00a0 Perhaps Romney thinks this is the way to solve the problem.\u00a0 Costumes are certainly not protected by the Second Amendment although they might be protected by the First Amendment.<\/p>\n

So if we have a complaint about society, would it be better to protect our right to say something before we protect our right to shoot something?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Talking Points Memo has a transcript of Obama\u2019s Full Remarks On Guns From Urban League Speech. I don’t believe these have been conveniently edited to make it seem that Obama said the opposite of what he actually said.\u00a0 I think the excerpt below is also faithful to the spirit of what he said. But what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[166],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-stevegsposts","7":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11647"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11648,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11647\/revisions\/11648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ssgreenberg.name\/PoliticsBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}