Response: "I think this is a great question, so I just want to clear it up, because I know there's probably some sportsmen here in the audience. I believe in the second amendment, and if you are a law abiding gun owner, you have nothing to fear from an Obama administration. This had been peddled again and again. You're absolutely right, people constantly say this.
Look, here's what I believe. That the second amendment is an individual right and it means something. That people have a right to bear arms. What I also believe is that there's nothing wrong with some common sense gun safety measures. For example, that we should have strong background checks to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, to keep them out of the hands of the mentally disabled. We should have mechanisms to trace guns that are used in crimes back to the gun dealers that sold them to shut down supplies of illegal guns. You know, that kind of thing is common sense, and it has nothing to do with the guy who has got his rifle and wants to go hunting. Now, the NRA sometimes... I'll be honest, and I'm sure there's some NRA members here... their general attitude is, 'Look, we don't want anything, and if you even breathe the word 'gun control' or 'gun safety,' then you must want to take away everybody's guns.' Well that's just not true.
But what we have to understand is that there's two realities about guns in this country. There's the reality of people who are lawfully and safely using guns for hunting and skeet shooting and protecting their families, and you've got illegal handguns being dumped in Philadelphia in the hands of teenage gang-bangers and drug dealers who are wreaking havoc and killing people. And surely we can come up with a system that protects lawful gun owners but tries to do something about kids getting shot. And that's the only... that is the job of the President is to reconcile this tradition of gun ownership in this country with some basic public safety concerns.
The bottom line is this: If you've got a rifle, you've got a shotgun, you've got a gun in your house, I'm not taking it away. Alright? So they can keep on talking about it, but this is just not true. And by the way, even if... here's another thing you've gotta understand, even if I wanted to take it away, I couldn't get it done. I don't have the votes in Congress. So this is something that, if you believe that I'm the best guy when it comes to jobs, if you believe I'm the best guy when it comes to health care, if you believe that I'm the best guy on education, and that I'm going to be looking out for you and fighting for you, this can't be the reason not to vote for me. Your guns... we're not going to mess with them."
Hooray for Obama! That's great. Yes, Sir, he's really got me sold! Then I guess I get to keep my copy of The Holy Bible, too, right?