In the twilight of his administration, President Obama is renewing his fight for stricter gun control laws.
Tuesday, President Obama will travel to his hometown Chicago. But he’s not there to visit family, the President is headed to Chicago for one reason — to renew the fight for gun control.
The LA Times reports President Obama will be speaking to the International Association of Chiefs of Police and there he will make his case for tougher gun laws.
Obama will talk about the need for tougher gun laws with police chiefs gathered in Chicago on Tuesday, aides say, as part of a broader conversation about violence and how police can work more effectively with their communities to combat it.He’s traveling to Chicago simply because that’s the site of the annual gathering of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, but advisors say he’s well aware of the symbolism in returning to his hometown amid this debate.Chicago has long been a battleground for both pro- and anti-gun forces. Three decades ago, in the wake of the assassination attempts on President Reagan and Pope John Paul II, the City Council banned new sales and registration of handguns in the city in 1982. Chicago was the first major city to take that step.Now, with Obama renewing his rhetoric about more gun control in the wake of massacres at a church in South Carolina and a community college in Oregon and considering imposing gun safety rules by executive order, critics once again are pointing to the president’s hometown for proof of the folly.
According to Virginia Gun Rights:
Obama will have a receptive ear as many big city chiefs are in favor of gun control and the IACP has in the past endorsed such policies as banning modern sporting rifles. Obama’s remarks come however at a time when multiple polls of the public show Americans oppose stricter gun laws or that addressing mental health issues are more important.
After the mass shooting in Oregon, President Obama lashed out saying these types of instances had, “become routine.”
If only data supported President Obama’s second amendment loathing.
The results of a study conducted by the CDC at the behest of Obama administration contradict the President’s current gun control agenda. The CDC’s study concluded, “self-defense can be an important crime deterrent.” CNS News reported at the time [emphasis added]:
“Most felons report obtaining the majority of their firearms from informal sources,” adds the report, while “stolen guns account for only a small percentage of guns used by convicted criminals.”Researchers also found that the majority of firearm deaths are from suicide, not homicide. “Between the years 2000 and 2010, firearm-related suicides significantly outnumbered homicides for all age groups, annually accounting for 61 percent of the more than 335,600 people who died from firearm-related violence in the United States.”…The report expresses uncertainty about gun control measures, stating that “whether gun restrictions reduce firearm-related violence is an unresolved issue,” and that there is no evidence “that passage of right-to-carry laws decrease or increase violence crime.” It also stated that proposed “gun turn-in programs are ineffective.”
And what about concealed carry permits? A study released by researchers at Texas A&M University last week revealed there is no correlation between Concealed Handgun Licenses and an increase in crime rates.
“The basic question underlying the hypotheses investigated in this research is simple — Is CHL licensing related in any way to crime rates?” the study reports. “The results of this research indicate that no such relationships exist.” Phillips and his associates looked at over a decade of data on crime rates and concealed carry licenses in every county in Texas, Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania.“More people acquired concealed carry permits in counties where more businesses or individuals sold firearms,” the study reports. “The number of CHLs issued was driven more by the number of individuals or businesses offering handguns for sale (the supply of handguns) than by changes in the real threat of victimization as measured by county crime rates.”
Because it’s never a ballot winning initiative, Democratic candidates tend to shy away from second amendment encroachments during election years. Bucking the norm, presidential frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, said Australian-style gun confiscation would be “worth considering,” nationally.
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