Here is an article from FoxNews.com stating that gun control is crucial for Obama's legacy:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/22/gun-control-efforts-now-central-to-president-obamas-legacy/?intcmp=HPBucket
As President Obama is inaugurated for a second time, the biggest
political surprise is that gun control is now key to his political
legacy.
Despite the shooting of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and
the mass murders at a Colorado movie theater, the president stayed away
from gun control during his first term.
He treated it as if it was political poison. The Brady Campaign to
Prevent Gun Violence gave him a grade of F for his failure to act.
Now, in the aftermath of the Connecticut school shooting, polls show
the general public — and specifically the president’s core, liberal
political base — expect him to use the political mandate that comes with
reelection to go bold on gun control.
Until recently his political base had no expectations about gun
control. It just wanted him to be more aggressive in fighting GOP
obstructionism on budget deals. The Obama White House responded by
refusing to be scared by the “fiscal cliff” and, so far, refusing to
negotiate spending cuts with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.
Beyond budget fights, the Obama second-term agenda was supposed to be about passing comprehensive immigration reform.
There is also hope for improving the nation’s lagging school performance and dealing with global warming.
At the far end of the president’s famous “Hope and Change” agenda is a
new vision for foreign policy with more focus on Asia — and the rise of
Chinese military might — as well as replacing U.S. reliance on a
budget-heavy military with increased use of alliances and diplomacy.
And the president planned to protect the No. 1 legacy of his first term: universal healthcare.
But a new political reality dawned after the Newtown shooting.
The president was bluntly asked in a White House news conference:
“Where’ve you been?” on gun control. He responded curtly that the
shooting had been a “wake-up call.”
And before any Inaugural balls, the president appeared at the White
House with schoolchildren who implored him to do something about gun
violence.
White House aides pledged to use their official power to push for new
gun-control legislation, while unofficial groups tied to the
president’s reelection promised to get involved as well.
The story of President Obama and guns started just after his first election.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) used the victory of a liberal
Democrat to create fears among gun owners that the government would
confiscate all guns.
President Obama did nothing close to that. And gun-rights advocates
scored a big win when the Supreme Court, in a long-awaited ruling,
reaffirmed that Americans have the right to own guns.
But public concern about gun-related deaths also picked up steam
during the first term. There were mass shootings in Arizona, Colorado
and Wisconsin — as well as record gun deaths in the president’s home
city of Chicago.
Still, the president looked the other way.
The NRA kept up the pressure by using Republicans in Congress to go
after the Obama Justice Department for a failed effort to halt gun
trafficking to Mexico — “Fast and Furious.”
This past summer, the House of Representatives took the extraordinary
step of voting to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of
Congress over his role in the botched operation.
According to the NRA leadership, Fast and Furious was part of an
elaborate conspiracy by the Obama administration to create a pretext for
restricting and confiscating the guns of law-abiding Americans.
Never mind that the program began during the Bush administration.
Why was the NRA pushing Congress to take action on such a ludicrous, baseless conspiracy theory?
As I wrote in The Hill at the time, the NRA wanted the president on
the defensive. It was also “feeling pressure” because a smaller, more
extreme gun-rights group, the Gun Owners of America, argued the NRA was
too moderate.
I added: “Fear of losing members has made the NRA push the political
limits in the name of self-preservation. The line keeps getting pushed
further and further into bizarre, nonsensical conspiracy theories —
because that is what excites their base.”
The pressure being exerted by the NRA to scare the president away
from any gun-control legislation did not end with Fast and Furious.
Last month NRA Executive Vice President and CEO Wayne LaPierre said
his group’s answer to school shootings was to have armed guards in every
school. Incredibly, he said this was not the time to talk about gun
control.
In opposing common-sense gun-safety measures under consideration by
the president, the NRA now finds itself at odds with the general public
and its own membership.
Polls show the NRA membership favors stronger background checks for
gun buyers. And a Pew poll taken last week found 85 percent of Americans
favor universal background checks on gun buyers, including at gun
shows.
So now the pressure on the president to end the gun slaughter is bigger than any nasty tactics coming from the NRA.
That’s why gun control is now the surprising center of the president’s second-term legacy.
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Gun control efforts now central to President Obama’s legacy
12:55 PM
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