Previous Post
Next Post

President Obama begins his speech at 4:30. As many TTAG commentators have pointed out, the President’s obvious anger at today’s Senate vote—shooting down gun control legislation—is in stark contrast to his relatively cool remarks regarding the Benghazi embassy attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing. Mr. Obama’s vow to pursue civilian disarmament indicates what gun rights advocates know in their bones: this ain’t over. The fight for liberty and firearms freedom (same difference) is never over. Full transcript of the speech after the jump . . .

THE PRESIDENT:  A few months ago, in response to too many tragedies — including the shootings of a United States Congresswoman, Gabby Giffords, who’s here today, and the murder of 20 innocent schoolchildren and their teachers –- this country took up the cause of protecting more of our people from gun violence.

Families that know unspeakable grief summoned the courage to petition their elected leaders –- not just to honor the memory of their children, but to protect the lives of all our children.  And a few minutes ago, a minority in the United States Senate decided it wasn’t worth it.  They blocked common-sense gun reforms even while these families looked on from the Senate gallery.

By now, it’s well known that 90 percent of the American people support universal background checks that make it harder for a dangerous person to buy a gun.  We’re talking about convicted felons, people convicted of domestic violence, people with a severe mental illness.  Ninety percent of Americans support that idea.  Most Americans think that’s already the law.

And a few minutes ago, 90 percent of Democrats in the Senate just voted for that idea.  But it’s not going to happen because 90 percent of Republicans in the Senate just voted against that idea.

A majority of senators voted “yes” to protecting more of our citizens with smarter background checks.  But by this continuing distortion of Senate rules, a minority was able to block it from moving forward.

I’m going to speak plainly and honestly about what’s happened here because the American people are trying to figure out how can something have 90 percent support and yet not happen. We had a Democrat and a Republican -– both gun owners, both fierce defenders of our Second Amendment, with “A” grades from the NRA — come together and worked together to write a common-sense compromise on background checks.  And I want to thank Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey for their courage in doing that.  That was not easy given their traditional strong support for Second Amendment rights.

As they said, nobody could honestly claim that the package they put together infringed on our Second Amendment rights.  All it did was extend the same background check rules that already apply to guns purchased from a dealer to guns purchased at gun shows or over the Internet.  So 60 percent of guns are already purchased through a background check system; this would have covered a lot of the guns that are currently outside that system.

Their legislation showed respect for gun owners, and it showed respect for the victims of gun violence.  And Gabby Giffords, by the way, is both — she’s a gun owner and a victim of gun violence.  She is a Westerner and a moderate.  And she supports these background checks.

In fact, even the NRA used to support expanded background checks.  The current leader of the NRA used to support these background checks.  So while this compromise didn’t contain everything I wanted or everything that these families wanted, it did represent progress.  It represented moderation and common sense.  That’s why 90 percent of the American people supported it.

But instead of supporting this compromise, the gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill.  They claimed that it would create some sort of “big brother” gun registry, even though the bill did the opposite.  This legislation, in fact, outlawed any registry.  Plain and simple, right there in the text.  But that didn’t matter.

And unfortunately, this pattern of spreading untruths about this legislation served a purpose, because those lies upset an intense minority of gun owners, and that in turn intimidated a lot of senators.  And I talked to several of these senators over the past few weeks, and they’re all good people.  I know all of them were shocked by tragedies like Newtown.  And I also understand that they come from states that are strongly pro-gun. And I have consistently said that there are regional differences when it comes to guns, and that both sides have to listen to each other.

But the fact is most of these senators could not offer any good reason why we wouldn’t want to make it harder for criminals and those with severe mental illnesses to buy a gun.  There were no coherent arguments as to why we wouldn’t do this.  It came down to politics — the worry that that vocal minority of gun owners would come after them in future elections.  They worried that the gun lobby would spend a lot of money and paint them as anti-Second Amendment.

And obviously, a lot of Republicans had that fear, but Democrats had that fear, too.  And so they caved to the pressure, and they started looking for an excuse — any excuse — to vote “no.”

One common argument I heard was that this legislation wouldn’t prevent all future massacres.  And that’s true.  As I said from the start, no single piece of legislation can stop every act of violence and evil.  We learned that tragically just two days ago.  But if action by Congress could have saved one person, one child, a few hundred, a few thousand — if it could have prevented those people from losing their lives to gun violence in the future while preserving our Second Amendment rights, we had an obligation to try.

And this legislation met that test.  And too many senators failed theirs.

I’ve heard some say that blocking this step would be a victory.  And my question is, a victory for who?  A victory for what?  All that happened today was the preservation of the loophole that lets dangerous criminals buy guns without a background check.  That didn’t make our kids safer.  Victory for not doing something that 90 percent of Americans, 80 percent of Republicans, the vast majority of your constituents wanted to get done?  It begs the question, who are we here to represent?

I’ve heard folks say that having the families of victims lobby for this legislation was somehow misplaced.  “A prop,” somebody called them.  “Emotional blackmail,” some outlet said.  Are they serious?  Do we really think that thousands of families whose lives have been shattered by gun violence don’t have a right to weigh in on this issue?  Do we think their emotions, their loss is not relevant to this debate?

So all in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.

But this effort is not over.  I want to make it clear to the American people we can still bring about meaningful changes that reduce gun violence, so long as the American people don’t give up on it.  Even without Congress, my administration will keep doing everything it can to protect more of our communities.  We’re going to address the barriers that prevent states from participating in the existing background check system.  We’re going to give law enforcement more information about lost and stolen guns so it can do its job.  We’re going to help to put in place emergency plans to protect our children in their schools.

But we can do more if Congress gets its act together.  And if this Congress refuses to listen to the American people and pass common-sense gun legislation, then the real impact is going to have to come from the voters.

To all the people who supported this legislation — law enforcement and responsible gun owners, Democrats and Republicans, urban moms, rural hunters, whoever you are — you need to let your representatives in Congress know that you are disappointed, and that if they don’t act this time, you will remember come election time.

To the wide majority of NRA households who supported this legislation, you need to let your leadership and lobbyists in Washington know they didn’t represent your views on this one.

The point is those who care deeply about preventing more and more gun violence will have to be as passionate, and as organized, and as vocal as those who blocked these common-sense steps to help keep our kids safe.  Ultimately, you outnumber those who argued the other way.  But they’re better organized.  They’re better financed.  They’ve been at it longer.  And they make sure to stay focused on this one issue during election time. And that’s the reason why you can have something that 90 percent of Americans support and you can’t get it through the Senate or the House of Representatives.

So to change Washington, you, the American people, are going to have to sustain some passion about this.  And when necessary, you’ve got to send the right people to Washington.  And that requires strength, and it requires persistence.

And that’s the one thing that these families should have inspired in all of us.  I still don’t know how they have been able to muster up the strength to do what they’ve doing over the last several weeks, last several months.

And I see this as just round one.  When Newtown happened, I met with these families and I spoke to the community, and I said, something must be different right now.  We’re going to have to change.  That’s what the whole country said.  Everybody talked about how we were going to change something to make sure this didn’t happen again, just like everybody talked about how we needed to do something after Aurora.  Everybody talked about we needed change something after Tucson.

And I’m assuming that the emotions that we’ve all felt since Newtown, the emotions that we’ve all felt since Tucson and Aurora and Chicago — the pain we share with these families and families all across the country who’ve lost a loved one to gun violence — I’m assuming that’s not a temporary thing.  I’m assuming our expressions of grief and our commitment to do something different to prevent these things from happening are not empty words.

I believe we’re going to be able to get this done.  Sooner or later, we are going to get this right.  The memories of these children demand it.  And so do the American people.

Previous Post
Next Post

106 COMMENTS

  1. Creepy. What do they imagine would have prevented the Newtown Deaths? LEGISLATION?

    These folks need to realize that they cannot remake the world to suit their whims.
    “Save” WHAT LIVES?

    • “What do they imagine would have prevented the Newtown Deaths?”

      All of the anti-gun democrats linked arm in arm surrounding every school in America. They would finally be doing something useful with their careers.

    • Actually, there is legislation that would have helped. If gun free zones were eliminated, and staff encouraged to prepare themselves to confront force with force, then yes, the death toll in Newtown could have been greatly reduced, maybe even to zero.

      • Would it have been reduced because the terrorist would have been stopped by someone else with a gun? Or would it have been stopped because actually, it never would have occurred to the terrorist to target such a school in the first place? See, if they’re allowing people to carry in response to the threat of mass violence — and plenty of folks would actually choose to CC were they allowed — then that is perfect proof that such a community is already living in a high degree of fear, so why bother? They’re gonna go target the places that refuse to live in fear. You know — the “sheeple.”

        • So, it’s a bad thing for the terrorists to percieve us as strong and able to fight back? And if they’re leaving us alone to go after softer targets ain’t that a win for us?

          Alex, I know from previous comments that you are a well meaning person who believes his way is right. But I have trouble following your logic. It’s good when the bad guys leave us alone, regardless of your feelings that we’re living in fear or not. Which I am not.

          And I try not to use the word “sheeple”. I used to and realized it was wrong. Those people aren’t sheeple. they’re victims. They are simply waiting for someone to decide their fate for them.

        • For myself & I’m sure others feel the same, carrying a gun has absolutely zero to do with living in fear. I keep guns for self defense for exactly the same reason I have fire extinguishers in my house & garage, not because I’m afraid of what can happen but I’m prepared to confront & hopefully stop a situation if it arises. I hope to god I never have to use either.

        • Alex, I’m legally armed and know how to use it. The only fear I have is that the Country goes so far down the tubes, I might have to use it.

      • Exactly. Even the manually ill folks who shoot up schools for various reasons realize that in order to go out in a blaze of glory, one must have a high body count.

        It’s harder than hell to rack-up high body counts when the bodies are returning fire.

        How can something so obvious as arming schools (or at least enacting a policy that they might be, so one never really knows until they try to make a move) continue to escape such otherwise intelligent and capable people?

        • Manually ill works just as well. I dont think anyone in the current administration was born the way they are.

  2. To those of you who called/emailed your representatives on gun control, thank you. This bill doesn’t get defeated without decent people speaking up. It’s something we’ll no doubt be ready to do again.

  3. I loathe the guy with every ounce but I must say this was the first time I’ve heard him speak with any degree of honesty and passion. He has ladled out the phoniness for five years running, but this is the first time I’ve detected sincerity in his voice. It was lecturing, hectoring, pompous, dismissive, but it was deeply heartfelt. Which tells me that this guy is never so passionate as when he is defeated, he is never so passionate as when the peons rebuke his elitist view, he is never so passionate as when our democratic society denies his vision. He is never so passionate as when he can’t be all-powerful. Which leads me back to why I loathe the MF. I’m back at the same place I was, but at least I didn’t have to endure vomit-inducing phoniness. Frightening honesty from the Lightworker is progress of a sort…I guess.

  4. My four year old daughter has shown me more character and maturity in dealing with the word “No” than this token President has.

    Behold, The Man-Child Himself, Barack Hussein Obama- mmmm, mmmm, mmmmm.

  5. Not only was this a resounding defeat for Obama and the Democrats, the national conceal carry amendment received MORE votes than the background check amendment. That a gun rights amendment received MORE votes than a gun control amendment must have been a shock to Democrats. 57 votes for national conceal carry no doubt scared a lot of urban liberal elitist Senators.

  6. No Mr. President, the Newtown parents’ emotions are not relevant to this debate! Only reason and rational arguments are.

  7. I couldnt stop laughing when Biden tried to hug the father and he initialy hesitated. Oh and I like how only Newton and Gabby were the reasons for this so its about the “children” and polititians but not movie-goers or window shoppers.

  8. I’m tired of Giffords. I was wounded in Afghanistan. That does not make me an expert on foreign policy or war. Likewise, she is not an expert on crime because she was shot by a madman with a gun.

  9. He says the legislation represents progress… progressively curtailing our civil rights. If you give a mouse a cookie…

    Well, he’s more like a rat.

  10. 1. Demand “a vote”
    2. get said vote
    3. realize it’s not the vote you wanted
    4. blame the system
    5. throw a temper tantrum

    A perfectly reasonable response from the President of the United States.

    … I can’t believe i managed to say that with a straight face.

      • Somebody once wrote: ” When you reach a certain age, it’s not good to try looking sullen. It’ll just make you look like you ate too much bratwurst.”

        • “Too much bratwurst”? Is there such a thing? Haven’t had breakfast & now I want bratwurst.

          Anyway, we see the man-child in full roar & it’s not an edifying sight. Obama unveiled, unhinged, & insufferable. That diatribe just made it a lot easier for even more Dems to vote against gun control. Public meltdowns never do any cause any good.

          However, the PR damage done by the Senate gun vote is minimized by the Waco explosion & the Boston bombing. It’s not high on the public’s radar. And in North Korea the little rocket-rattling riceball turns away from CNN and asks his generals, “So what am I, chopped kimchee?”

  11. We have a rare and terrifying glimpse into this sociopathic madman’s true character. He’s only ever passionate when he’s denied being a tyrant, denied the ability to steal people’s human rights. You can practically hear him…”They DARE? They DARE DENY ME?!”

    I’ll be blunt…I 100 percent expect a false flag in the near future. We’ve already seen that Obama doesn’t get mad when Americans die, nor does he see victims as anything more than props and tools. What’s some more bullet-ridden corpses if it means advancing his mandate? We the peons exist only to serve the State after all.

    We’ve made a narcissistic dictator with unprecedented Presidential power mad. Keep vigilant and keep your powder dry.

  12. It wasn’t a minority. They voted and guess what it didn’t pass. It is far from dead though. I guess he can’t deal with the fact that the politicians might have actually listened to the voters. Yeah yeah I know shocking..

  13. Oh he is pissed.

    So, can anyone say… Executive Orders?

    This is now the time for all Pro 2A supporters to be hyper-vigilent; like he said, this is the first round and he/they will have a much, much different approach for the next round.

    • They tried the executive order thing and most of them are pretty useless. They are also limited as to what they can do with EO’s, in other words he cant just make one that says guns are illegal.

        • …and, what I really should have stated earlier instead of EO’s is Martial Law. This is his personal agenda we’re dealing with. Let’s see if there might be one more disaster, false flag or bloody shirts that forces that hand. Then shit’s gonna get real. Evil. Fast.

    • An Executive Order circumventing the Bill if Rights is a mortal sin for a president and opens the door wide for impeachment. Having said that, be vigilant and keep your powder dry.

  14. Cool headed in response to acts of violence. Righteous anger in response to the way politics, money, and power interfere with the will of supposed “leaders” to take the slightest collective action in attempt to prevent acts of violence…. Actually, I think he got it exactly right. (But then again, I’m one of the “sheeple.”)

    • I see we’re getting the run-off from the toxic waste dump of MSM sites.

      Keep crying those “righteous” tears because you and your overlords failed to further oppress and steal the rights from real Americans today. I love the taste.

      By the way, our public “leaders” shouldn’t have a will of their own. Their entire job is to represent the will of the people. That’s exactly what happened today. I’m sorry that interferes with your wet dreams of a nanny police state, but maybe if you boned up on your 4th grade Social Studies, this wouldn’t be such a surprise to you.

      • Yes, their job is to represent the will of the people…as long as it’s constitutional. Like it or not, the constitution is (supposed to be) the Law of the Land.

        If the will of the people is to legalize lynchings and rape, the vote had better be 0 ayes…the same as it should be with gun control and civilian disarmament.

        The Bill of Rights enumerates protections against “unreasonable” searches and seizures and against “excessive” bail. These are unfortunately subjective. There is nothing subjective about “shall not be infringed.” The Bill of Rights says NOTHING about commonsense or reasonable use of arms.

        The Supreme Court also upheld that the prefatory clause (re: the militia) is just a reason for the individual right and does not in any way limit that right only to militia members. It is the same as saying “In order to secure jelly beans, I bought a car to drive to the store.” Just because the reason you bought the car is to buy jelly beans does not mean that’s all your allowed to do with it and that you are not allowed to drive it to the movies as well.

        The fact that we had forty-whatever aye votes is sad and scary.

        This really is that simple.

      • Ugh, did you really have to write the words “nanny police state?” I’m gonna have to go change my underwear!

  15. Continuing Chris Dumm’s TS Eliot reference from the last post, one more character needs to be identified: Joe Biden, the Hollow Man. You have to love how he stands in front of Francine Wheeler, the grieving mom from Sandy Hook. I really feel for the parents; Biden’s miscue, buffoonish and unintentional though it be, illustrates perfectly how the administration sees them as nothing more than props to set up on the White House steps.

    • I have no idea what got in to me but as I read your post, Indrid I pictured Biden speeding down Pensylvania Ave in the Oscar Meyer Weener Mobile with a grin on his face. Im guess just feeling goofy right now watching him cry and wanted to think of what could cheer him up.

      • Nothing can set him into uncontrollable giggles like a debate with Paul Ryan. Damn I bet all those caps cost a fortune.

  16. You know, I am going to go out on a limb and say this is going to bite us in the ass big time. We won this round, but I think just like the tabacoo stuff this may be a phyric victory. I think the next go round is going to be even more extreme. Remember the PATRIOT ACT was proposed by Clinton in 90s, worst law ever, then 9/11 and boom that shit is passed in 2 seconds. Let’s say the boston bomber is a timothy mcviegh, or there is an adama lanza 2, the grabbers are going to come harder and faster, and we may not have a say at all. We should have given up a brackground check, with a no national database provision, and then all of the libs could have gone home and said done deal… Great to have won this one, but I am doubling my ammo and gun counts, because they may be gone next go round.

    • If you think this bill had anything to do with background checks you never read it. It was 100% about banning private sales and creating large new classes of prohibited possessors. The “no database” provisions were completely toothless.

    • You could never have trusted them to do the background checks and not collect the data anyway. They wouldn’t be able to help themselves.

      You are exactly right though, this is not a win, we just beat them back a little. The very next big tragedy will set everything right back in motion again. Harder, faster, more onerous.

    • No they would not have gone home, they would have been back for more of your rights until you have none left.
      “First they passed universal background checks. but I thought that was OK so I said nothing …”

    • You’re likely right.

      Now is the time to pester the SAF and GOA and NRA to lobby for some gun rights legislation.

      The Heller decision should have been the end of this, but it appears we need to have more specifics codified in the Federal Register.

      We now need legislation proposed that offers constitutional carry, an end to serial numbers on the 4473, interstate purchase of handguns, removal of supressors from Class III, etc. No sunset clause, either.

      We made our legislators feel their jobs were in jeopardy if the were to vote in favor of civilian disarmament. We now need to make them feel that their jobs are in jeopardy if they do nothing.

  17. Not going to win any friends with this, but just consider it. This was a win/win for Obama. Go along with the histrionics and gun grabbers, get a vote on a bill in Congress. He knows in advance that we have the most worthless Congress in history, so at best a castrated bill would (did) come up for a vote. If it passes he’s a hero. If it fails, he’s still a hero to the same people.
    Now, had the bill passed, the SCOTUS is likely to kill it anyway! So anyway you look at it, Obama gains the favor of those screaming the loudest for gun control, while knowing gun control will fail either in Congress or court. I say he’s learned how to be a politician.
    Or maybe I’m wrong. But the guy didn’t become the most powerful man in the world by being stupid.

    • the guy didn’t become the most powerful man in the world by being stupid.

      No, the guy became the most powerful man in the world because the voters are stupid.

      • Good golly, he’s a frakkin’ tool of the real forces that run the show. (Protip: It ain’t the UhMurrican voting public.)

        Just like the last 40 years worth of White House selectees.

  18. Was everyone instructed to put on their “pouty face” when the President spoke. Using children as a backdrop is one thing (which is totally wrong), but seeing a gaggle of adults who are obviously showing their staged disdain for not passing this bill is actually quite comical. Look at Biden with his arms crossed, Gabby with her bobbling head of sympathy, look at the Newtown father in the upper left with the pout face, and then the woman in green with a look that is just too incomprehensible to interpret. ALL OF THIS IS STAGED. I do not know where this 90% comes from. Can’t the liberal democrats just grow up and stop throwing temper tantrums when they do not get what they want. The second amendment SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!!!!

  19. Make the pigs pay in the 14′ midterms. And remember, dont you morons (who voted for Barry jugg-ears and other dems) ever vote libtard (democrat) AGAIN.

  20. I’m disturbed that the only things Obama seems to really care about is increasing executive power (he now claims to be able to kill anyone, any place, any time), and disarming the public. This is not a combination that makes me feel safe.

  21. Interesting how the SCOAMF (look it up if unsure) gets all heated about failures of the democratic process, as defined by himself, when things don’t go his way, but has no issue whatsoever with even more high-level skullduggery, such as what occurred during the passing of the ACA, when it goes in his favor. He is a purely political man – all that matters is victory for team blue for him, and it shows every time he loses. They will be back, and with a vengeance, so be ready to burn up the phone lines again.

    As an aside, and off-topic, for those who are concerned about the current amnesty push, if you’re against it, be prepared to double your efforts. Amnesty 2.0 has (R) support in the Senate, and Boehner has shown that he will pass bills without a Republican majority in the house. There is *speculation* that some vulnerable (R) senators chose to vote “no” on the gun amendments in order to only leave one open flank for an attack from the right in ’14. For the record, I believe that’s a pretty good guess of what’s coming next.

  22. I can only tolerate his voice when he’s unhappy, it’s like music to my ears, otherwise, it would be like nails on a chalkboard and I’d have to vomit, then flagellate myself as penance for listening to his drivel.

  23. The President is wrong. People realized that the Senate bill was just another band-aid. It did not solve any of the problems, and that’s why it failed. It served to showcase the shortsightedness and shallowness of thought in our politicians.

    There are many different types of gun crimes. There is the criminal that just wants to rob you and uses a gun to force the issue but when confronted with force runs for the hills. There is another that is suicidal, has been for a while and they’re angry and don’t care if they are killed. There are ones that will take many lives with them. There’s the angry spouse. There’s the gang initiation, or the turf war. It goes on and on. Obviously, there is no single solution because all of the motivations are different.

    To solve the problem we must start with enumerating all the different type of gun crimes. Only then can you start to understand how to prevent them, and legislation will probably not be part of the solution. In the meantime, the only solution we have is to meet force with counter-force, and the more counter-force the better. There are a lot more “good guys” than “bad guys”. If all the good guys are armed the bad guys can’t win. That is the only given I can see at this time.

  24. “So all in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.”

    I agree. Politicians using grief stricken parents to try and muster support for feel good legislation that not one senator could explain how (it) would have stopped Sandy Hook, is pretty shameful.

  25. Yes, he does seem angry, rather than cool and collected.

    That is because he feels that he and we were betrayed by the Senate, which is different to being attacked by maniacs or zealots.

    An attack provokes cold anger, while betrayal can provoke hot anger.

    Please do not misunderstand me. He is wrong on this, and the Senate voted correctly, but sender is intellectually and morally convinced of his rectitude, his emotional response is appropriate.

    And we DO need a better background check system. Better than what we have, and better than M-T. Something fast, simple, free and leaving no trace. Go to a web page or dial a ‘phone number, enter or speak a small amount of data and receive a yea or nae. How to do this, though, I have no idea.

  26. Obama failed to recognize his top Democrat, Harry Reid voted no.
    Yes I do know that he voted no so he can bring the bill up again for vote.
    But that means that Harry voted no for political reasons, just what Obama accuses the Republicans of doing all the time.

    • Harry had a close one in the last election. He knows how to read the writing on the political wall. His “A” rating on gun legislation should be revoked.

  27. I remember when we did not have all those anti-gun liberals in DC. Once Hubert H. Humphrey was a known liberal of his day; however, he always stated he fully supported the 2A. The “Happy Warrior” had more common sense and patriotism than all the current anti-gun liberals we now have.

  28. It’s a 14 minute tantrum. I have never seen a President of The United States lose control of himself in public like that. I half expected him to finish up by holding his breath until he turned blue.
    This pathetic display of weakness and fecklessness on Obama’s part only makes our victory all the more complete.

  29. I guess the Fed’s don’t need all those bullets they have purchased! No revolt is needed, chance for the HITLER TAKE OVER from the LIBERIALS will not happen.
    Agian I ask all true Americans to join the NRA! And keep up the fight and protections of this Great Country and her Constitution!

  30. No Doofus, emotion is not relevant to a debate. Thats why its called a debate, and not a counseling session. If you want emotion, how about the emotions of the victims families that didnt support your disarmament agenda. Are those emotions relevant? You twit.
    I am breathing a little easier today. We have stopped their momentum, now we need to push back. Hopefully Illinois will be the next example with a concealed carry beat down on those corrupt hypocritical narcissists in Chicago.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here