My colleagues have already written about the Rev. Wright controversy.  I believe it hurts Obama in the General, but I would still much rather beat him on policy.  So let's get back to the issues and take a look at Barack on Guns.

To say that Barack Obama doesn't think much of the 2nd Amendment would be an understatement. Through his time in the State Senate he voted on several pieces of legislation that aimed at curtailing our constitutional right to bear arms.

Finding information about Obama's positions on Gun Control is not hard.  I guess his disdain for guns is well known and he doesn't care to hide it.  A simple google search gives you good info about his positions, but not much on his voting record.  While his sound-bite is useful, I'm more interested in some of the actual votes he took.  First, let me tell you that in order to own a gun in Illinois you must: be a resident; fill out an application; send it to the State Police for a background check; pay a filing fee; and then wait at least 30 days to receive your FOID (Firearm Owner ID) card.  Oh also, it's illegal to buy/own a gun in the city of Chicago for any reason (hasn't helped reduce crime though).  Anyway, here are some of his votes in the Senate:
 
- 1999 - SB 177: Firearm/Minors - Obama votes YES for imposing harsher penalties (felony) on parents who do not "properly" store their gun or put a trigger child lock on them while in their home. 

- 2001 - SB 397: FOID/Criminal History -  Obama votes YES for imposing that every FOID card carrier re-submit their application for another background check every six months. Every six months? What a waste of state resources. 

- 2001 - SB 604: Conceal/Protection Order - Obama votes NO on a bill that would allow people who are given a protection order against someone by the courts, to carry a concealed weapon in order to defend themselves.  This bill failed in the Senate after heavy lobbying by liberals like Obama.  Here's part of Obama's argument against this common sense bill:

As I stated in committee, Senator Petka and I disagree on the underlying premise that conceal and carry will create a safer citizenry in Illinois.  I would urge, at this stage, a No vote, not only because this is not going to be particularly effective with respect to curbing domestic violence, but more importantly, because I think that this reaches into a much larger issue in terms of how we maintain safety in the State of Illinois.

One would think that something as common sense as allowing someone, who has already proved to the court that their life is in danger, to defend his/herself, would be acceptable even to the most lefty of liberals.  Nope, in Obama's world, if someone makes a life-threat on you, you should just tell the police and cross your fingers.

- 2002 - CCR SB 397: Shotgun Ammo - Obama votes NO on a bill that would allow non-resident participants of a sanctioned competitive shooting event to purchase a shotgun or shotgun ammo at the site of the event. 

- 2002 - SB 1936: FOID Exemptions - Obama votes NO on a bill that would create certain exemptions for the need of a FOID card in order to use a gun recreationally.  These exemptions included provisions that required the carrier of the weapon to be not only supervised by a FOID card carrier but that this should only happen during a sanctioned shooting event.  The bill also allowed an exemption for a non-resident to be allowed to apply for a FOID card if he/she works as a security officer at a nuclear facility. Makes sense right?

- 2003 - HB 2579: Senate Amendment 1 - Obama votes YES on this bill.  This is one of the most offensive anti-gun votes that I could find in Obama's record.  This amendment was basically the recycle of the 11th time of Mayor Daley's one-gun-a-month bill.  In researching this vote I found some of the most anti-gun vitriol that I've ever seen.  So much of this amendment goes against our basic freedom to bear arms and defend ourselves.  Apparently Obama is comfortable with criminals going on the black market and purchasing as many guns as they want, while law abiding citizens are to be limited to not only how quick they can purchase a gun, where they can do so, whether or not they can carry it, but also how often they can do it too! The amendment was defeated, but it is recycled every time the legislature re-assembles.  It has failed every single time it's been brought up and it will fail again this year, as HB 4393. Only the far left liberals in Illinois still vote and lobby for this bill.  You can count Obama as part of that crowd.  Before I finish, here's a quote from the bill's author (John Cullerton) in 2003.  It symbolizes the naive mentality of Obama and the rest of his anti-gun caucus when it comes to the "slippery slope" argument against gun control:

 ...I think the only argument that is implicit here in opposition to this is that it's a slippery slope: once you start limiting our handguns to one per month, you never know - next year they'll come in with a bill saying one per year. Well you know what? Either everything is slippery slope or nothing is a slippery slope. Every year, any General Assembly that comes in here, they can pass whatever they want in the future.  We could pass this bill this year and next year we can repeal it...

I challenge someone to name a time in recent history when a state or the federal government passed a law that limits one of our constitutional rights, only to repeal it after.  It's called retrenchment, and it just doesn't happen very often in government.  This says a lot about Obama.  Not only is he no friend of the 2nd Amendment, but he also seems to be ok with the idea of limiting basic consitutional rights on a trial-and-error basis.  That's just scary.

Stay tuned for the next segment of Obama Watch.

PS:  I received an email from a reader with a link to this article.  It shows a stark contrast in ideology between Obama's posse in Illinois and the folks in Georgia.  In 1982, the Kennesaw City Council passed a law requiring head of households to own at least one firearm with ammunition.  The result? A drop of crime by 89% in the last 20 years compared to the modest average of 10% statewide.  Something to think about the next time a silly liberal tries to ban firearms in a violent city like Chicago.