A Fearless President Obama Sets His Sights On The NRA

In his remarks on gun violence today, President Obama made it clear that he still standing tall and taking the fight to the NRA.

Here is the video courtesy of NBC News:

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The president made his case for common sense gun reform and took on the NRA.

Transcript:

OBAMA: Now in the coming weeks, members of Congress will vote on whether we should require universal background checks for anyone who wants to buy a gun so that criminals or people with severe mental illnesses can’t get their hands on one.

They’ll vote on tough new penalties for anyone who buys guns only to turn around and sell them to criminals.

They’ll vote on a measure that would keep weapons of war and high-capacity ammunition magazines that facilitate these mass killings off our streets.

They’ll get to vote on legislation that would help schools become safer and help people struggling with mental health problems to get the treatment that they need.

None of these ideas should be controversial. Why wouldn’t we want to make it more difficult for a dangerous person to get his or her hand on a gun? Why wouldn’t we want to close the loophole that allows as many as 40 percent of all gun purchases to take place without a background check? Why wouldn’t we do that?

And if you ask most Americans outside of Washington, including many gun owners, some of these ideas, they don’t consider them controversial.

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There is absolutely no reason why we can’t get this done. But the reason we’re talking about it here today is because it’s not done until it’s done. And there are some powerful voices on the other side that are interested in running out the clock, or changing the subject or drowning out the majority of the American people to prevent any of these reforms from happening at all.

They’re doing everything they can to make all our progress collapse under the weight of fear and frustration, or their assumption is, is that people will just forget about it.

I read an article in the news just the other day, wondering, is Washington — has Washington missed its opportunity because as, time goes on after Newtown, somehow people start moving on and forgetting. Let me tell you, the people here, they don’t forget. Grace’s dad is not forgetting. Hadiya’s mom hasn’t forgotten. The notion that two months or three months after something as horrific as what happened in Newtown happens, and we’ve moved on to other things?

That’s not who we are. That’s not who we are. And I want to make sure every American is listening today. Less than 100 days ago that happened and the entire country was shocked. And the entire country pledged we would do something about it and that this time would be different.

Here is some math that even the NRA should be able to understand. The NRA claims to have 4.2 million members, but they don’t release their membership numbers. It is estimated that their real membership is between 2-3 million. The pro-Obama Organizing For America has an estimated email list of 13-16 million.

The reason why President Obama has nothing to fear with from the NRA is that he has them “outgunned.”

If Democrats in the Senate had as much courage as President Obama, gun reform would be a foregone conclusion. The NRA is hoping that people will eventually forget Newtown, and this will all blow over.

Maybe it will, but each of these mass shootings is building up a cumulative effect on our society. For the NRA, winning this debate means that no new gun control legislation passes. If this is their definition of victory, they are going to lose. Some of the left think that the only meaningful gun control victory would be an assault weapons ban. (These are same ideologues who suggested that healthcare reform would only be considered a success if it included a public option, or Medicare for all.) The kind of progress that President Obama is trying to achieve isn’t going to come in sweeping blow on any of these issues.

Obamacare was historic, and has opened the door to more progress in the future. Universal background checks would also be historic. Any successful gun control legislation effort will break the NRA’s decades long hold on this nation’s gun policy.

President Obama is still taking the fight to the NRA, because real change starts with a single victory.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association