Monday, February 18, 2008

THE LAWSON FILE: DUCK HUNTING CLINTON BATTLES GUN RIGHTS DEFENDER OBAMA


I've done this before but I couldn't resist one more swipe.

Here we go with those Presidential Candidate hunters. Apparently, in order to run for President of the United States it is a requirement that you be a hunter.

Or so it would seem.

Now it is Hillary Clinton's turn.

Campaigning ahead of Tuesday's Democratic nominating vote in Wisconsin, a state with a strong tradition of hunting and where many voters strongly support gun ownership rights, Clinton said she firmly backed the right to bear arms.

"You know, you may not believe it but I've actually gone hunting," Clinton, 60, said at a question-and-answer session with voters at a crammed bratwurst restaurant in Kenosha.

Later, a reporter who had followed her career for 2 1/2 years and was not aware of her hunting experience pressed Clinton on whether she had ever shot anything.

"Yes, Mike, I have," she told the reporter, Mike McAuliff of the New York Daily News. Clinton said she had shot a duck as well as "a lot of tin cans and a lot of targets and some skeet."

In Wausau, Clinton gave details of her duck hunting days — revealing that she once surprised all her male companions when she shot a banded mallard out of the sky.

Okay.

I doubt that she won the mallard vote with that comment though.

Seriously, speaking about the latest massacre on campus, Clinton said steps should be taken to make sure those with criminal backgrounds or a history of mental illness did not get access to guns, though she did not offer specifics. She said she would not take any steps that would infringe on the rights of "lawful gun owners."

Not to be outdone by all this gun talk by some woman, Barack Obama said in Wisconsin, "There is an individual right to bear arms. "But it's subject to common sense regulation, just like most of our rights are subject to common sense regulations."

Earlier Barack offered his sympathies for those shot at Northern Illinois University, but specified no new ideas to enforce gun control in his home state of Illinois. "I've said before, and continue to believe, that we need to do a more effective job of enforcing our gun laws," he said, speaking in Milwaukee, Wis., on Friday.

Obama's Web site has a link for "sportsman" with a section for "protecting gun rights."

The senator, a former constitutional law instructor, said some scholars argue the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees gun ownerships only to militias, but he believes it grants individual gun rights.

While campaigning in Idaho, Barack told crowds, ""I come from a state - we've got a lot of hunters in downstate Illinois. And I have no intention of taking away folks' guns.''

After that statement a spokesperson for duck hunter Hillary Rodham Clinton pointed out that 12 years ago when he was running for the state Legislature, Obama said in a questionnaire that he "supported banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns.''

Arizona Sen. John McCain, the leading Republican contender for president, is a co-sponsor of an amendment to massive bill affecting public lands from coast to coast.
The amendment would allow gun owners to carry loaded, accessible firearms into national parks and wildlife refuges.

Current regulations ban gun owners from carrying easy-to-reach firearms onto lands managed by the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.

Both Clinton and Obama have declined to comment on the amendment.

Best to be prudent. Be careful, don't upset anyone.

When it comes to how you feel about firearms, it depends on where you happen to be campaigning that day, I guess.

It's time for a change!

The following is from CBS News.span>

Clinton's Hunting History
Posted by Fernando

WAUSAU, WIS. -- At a campaign stop this afternoon, Hillary Clinton’s focus was on the economy and health care but some in the crowd had other things on their minds. Clinton was asked to discuss gun control which prompted Clinton to talk about her days holding a rifle in the cold, shallow waters in backwoods Arkansas.

“I’ve hunted. My father taught me how to hunt. I went duck hunting in Arkansas. I remember standing in that cold water, so cold, at first light. I was with a bunch of my friends, all men. The sun’s up, the ducks are flying and they are playing a trick on me. They said, ‘we’re not going to shoot, you shoot.’ They wanted to embarrass me. The pressure was on. So I shot, and I shot a banded duck and they were surprised as I was,” Clinton said drawing laughter from the crowd.

Clinton’s story led one older gentleman to say, “As long as you know how to use a gun, would you be willing to show Vice President Cheney how to use his?” Both Clinton and the crowd erupted in laughter.

“That was good, that was really good,” Clinton said. “You know I couldn’t believe that, I really thought that I have gotten over being totally outraged by the Bush Administration.”

Clinton continued, “Once he (Cheney) is out of office, the Secret Service is not around to protect people from him. We better be careful about where he goes hunting. Safety protocol would be useful, don’t’ you think?”

Later Clinton was asked whether her daughter Chelsea would run for president in eight years following a Hillary Clinton presidency, to which an amused Clinton said, “Oh no, no, no.”


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