Obama goes for the emotional gun control response – shows zero rational thought

I’m sorry about the flurry of gun control posts on the blog during the last 45 days, but I just can not let stand the outright lies and distortions coming from politicians and talking-heads who tweak their message to appeal to the emotional side of the low-information voter.

Yes, it can get worse. We’ve been talking about low-information voters out there for months, but when you target the emotional side of this crowd, it’s extremely difficult for them to even hear any other argument. President Obama is playing to this crowd. He knows most law enforcement officers and agencies are not “outgunned” but uses the word anyway. He knows semi-automatic rifles are not “massive weapons of war” but still uses the phrase anyway. He’s manipulating people.

When calling for a vote in Congress during the State of the Union Address last night, Obama said

It has been two months since Newtown. I know this is not the first time this country has debated how to reduce gun violence. But this time is different. Overwhelming majorities of Americans – Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment – have come together around commonsense reform – like background checks that will make it harder for criminals to get their hands on a gun. Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals. Police chiefs are asking our help to get weapons of war and massive ammunition magazines off our streets, because they are tired of being outgunned.

So senators are working on tough new laws to prevent firearm resale to criminals? Great, thanks folks … it’s already pretty much against the law and would not have stopped even one of the shootings the president referenced last night. AWR Hawkins at Big Government

These descriptions are problematic, considering that the “massive magazines” are simply those that hold more than 10 rounds. Obama suggested multiple times that 10 roundsought to be the legal cutoff.

So now 11- and 12-round magazines are “massive,” and “assault rifles” are “weapons of war.”

And as I’ve written in other posts, deaths involving “assault rifles” constituted less than .012 percent of all [firearm] deaths in America in 2011. Obama’s war-mongering hyperbole simply doesn’t fit.

Of course, if you’re speaking to the emotional side of the low-information voter who chooses not to even question what makes a “high-capacity” magazine high-capacity or make even a weak attempt at understanding the difference between a semi-automatic firearm and a select-fire firearm, this hyperbole works perfectly.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

18 Comments

  1. Plainvillian on February 13, 2013 at 7:49 am

    …..and in the grand tradition of Ruby Ridge and Waco, yesterday we added a killing at Big Bear.? Is it any wonder some believe that government is now the enemy?



    • JollyRoger on February 13, 2013 at 11:20 am

      Don’t forget the Wounded Knee Massacre- more than 200 unarmed women & children killed by our government. ?It’s amazing the GunWalker-in-Chief is so concerned about criminals’ access to guns! Never let a crisis go to waste!



  2. ricbee on February 13, 2013 at 7:55 am

    Obama is the worst of the talking heads. Saying words that have no truth & little meaning behind them. When was the last time a police force was”outgunned”by anyone,for instance?



    • Steve McGough on February 13, 2013 at 7:43 pm

      Very rare. The North Hollywood in 1997 comes to mind, and the bank robbers did have rifles that were illegally converted to full auto, and they shot more than 1,100 rounds. Although they injured 17 cops and bystanders, nobody was killed even though they got off more than 1,000 rounds.



    • ricbee on February 13, 2013 at 11:52 pm

      Thanks,were there any others?



  3. SeeingRed on February 13, 2013 at 7:56 am

    Simsbury just hosted a closed door meeting with thier political muckity-mucks, school super, police chief and Susan Esty (closed to the public so she could gather her thoughts).? The result?? They support a AWB…but wait – we have one of the most stringent in CT as we speak.? Further, the police chief is quoted as saying he supports a further ban while in the same sentance acknowledging that he does not beleive that it will curb violence one iota.
    Feel-good liberal mantra at the local level; long held statist mantra at the national level.



  4. Steven on February 13, 2013 at 8:54 am

    Lets look at some numbers for a change.? Between 2001-July of 2007 when this report OLR 2007-R-0442 was produced 71% of all firearms violations in the State of CT were NOLLED.?? Add plea bargains and other assorted dispositions that wouldn’t impose the full penalty to this and its way more than that.?? So instead of trying to ascertain why we do not enforce the existing statutes we’ll just make more of them.? After all CT has some of the toughest gun laws in the country – we just don’t enforce them.

    ?
    ?
    <td class="xl24" style="background-color:…



    • Dimsdale on February 13, 2013 at 10:19 am

      It’s the classic application of liberal incrementalism: pass laws they don’t enforce, scream about the need for new laws, pass more Draconian gun laws, fail to enforce them, etc., until you get to the point where they DO decide to enforce the law, and they have a near complete set of ultra restrictive laws that can be applied.



  5. JBS on February 13, 2013 at 9:21 am

    It’s ALL ABOUT CONTROL. He, and they, want it all.
    They choose to not like the 2nd Amendment, not like guns. Therefore, want to take that Right away from those who believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and do believe in self-defense.
    In that choosing, they ignore that it is crazy, drug-addled people who perpetrate these acts of murderous violence — that includes Chicago and any other drug nexus.
    How much of O’s speech was dedicated to calling for enhancing mental health treatment? Coordination of mental health records with background checks? Easing practitioner’s concerns about identifying patients espousing violent ideation? Making it easier for those with mental problems to get treatment?
    A predictable speech filled with self-congratulating platitudes, wobbly facts, distortions and lies.
    I had a difficult time reading the propaganda.



  6. Dimsdale on February 13, 2013 at 10:26 am

    I was also amazed that ?bama brought up a shooting death in Chicago (“not a mile from my own home”) and completely failed to mention the Draconian Chicago gun laws which apparently prevent, well, not much.
    ?
    Funny that.



  7. stinkfoot on February 13, 2013 at 10:41 am

    They can certainly set aside their distaste for guns if they think they can manufacture justification for their anti-second amendment agenda by walking them to Mexico and there is an odd absence of crocodile tears at the number of Mexican children killed as a result of Fast And Furious… and of course the “unbiased” press does not cover the galloping hypocrisy of that.



  8. JBS on February 13, 2013 at 6:13 pm

    Has anyone else noticed that when a Democrat is pictured holding a firearm, they have their finger ON THE TRIGGER?
    ?
    Perhaps that is an Freudian slip!
    ?



  9. Eric on February 13, 2013 at 7:57 pm

    You see, if obummer could produce a cognizant thought of his own he wouldn’t be trying to sell this old liberal argument using a group of props. ?But obummr cannot connect with people. ?He uses cliche’s, and he uses people as if he really cared for them. ?His nasty wife does the same thing, but she can’t pull it off as well. ?For people who make a living out of selling lies… these people aren’t that good. ?They aught to take some lessons from the Clintons. ?Now there’s a couple who made a science out of lying!



  10. PaulBartomioli on February 13, 2013 at 8:00 pm

    “Senators of both parties are working together on tough new laws to prevent anyone from buying guns for resale to criminals.” ?These people are brilliant. ?Outlaw straw man purchases. ?There is a bipartisan gang of 6 that have proposed such a law. ?I called all of them to ask why. ?I also pointed out that this has been the law of the land since GCA 68 was passed. ?The penalty is 10 years in prison for EACH firearm in their possession. ?Problem is, the average length of sentence under this statute is 2.5 years. ?The response was, our penalty is 20 years, so they will be in jail longer.

    Remember, 95% of the people, or some such number, do not know the gun laws, do not care. ?As Rush pointed out today, obama is campaigning against what we all know is wrong. ?Thanks to the Alphabet Soup Jackals and Hyenas, no one is pointing out obama is campaigning against his own policies. So, people support what he is doing because of their ignorance. We need to fight back with education and the truth.



  11. JBS on February 14, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    Obama will say and do anything to stay relevant. He got elected by lying. He got reelected by lying. This guy lies just to hear himself talk. 44 I’s in his SOTU speech is pathological.
    ?
    I hope that one day he gives one of his Fidel Castro (time it with a calendar) speeches — lectures, really — and the brain-dead, jackal, mainstream media doesn’t show up!
    ?
    LOL
    ?
    ?



    • JBS on February 14, 2013 at 3:26 pm

      Oh! The gun banner Democrats are showing their true colors in Missouri:
      They want owners of AW’s — whatever those are — to turn in their guns within 90-days or automatically become felons!
      I can only hope that the good citizens of Missouri will vote these treasonous usurpers out of office at their first chance.



    • stinkfoot on February 15, 2013 at 12:40 pm

      Impeachment would be FAR more appropriate.



  12. Don Lombardo on February 19, 2013 at 10:27 am

    Loved Obama’s facial expressions during Dr. Carson’s speech. He looked like he was getting an ice water enema.



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