Barack Obama on: "Sportsmen"

A (hopefully, if my attention span lasts) weekly series in which I explore Senator Obama's various positions.

First up: a topic Democrat candidates ceded to the Republicans about the time I was starting kindergarten - guns 'n ammo. Okay, that's a bit of an oversimplification...but both guns and ammo are definitely involved. This one caught my eye because a) I grew up in the country, so hunting and fishing were definitely a big part of my upbringing, and b) again, you just don't find the allegedly latte-sipping Libs putting this one out there.

Read Obama's full statement here.

He starts off by stating his support of the Second Amendment right of law-abiding people to own guns. Wonderful...but I would've liked a little more on how he plans to balance the rights of law-abiding people to not get shot by other, not-so-law-abiding people. The Virginia Tech shooter never should've been allowed to buy his weapons, for instance. We may or may not need new laws, but we sure as hell need better enforcement of the ones we have. Where does Obama stand on reinstituting the Assault Weapons Ban? No sportsman I know needs an AK-47 to take out a ten-point buck.

Much of the rest of the plan seems to equate preserving places to hunt and fish with environmental protection. YES. I've been waiting all my life to see a Democrat have the balls to frame this issue in this way. Too often, we've allowed ourselves to be depicted as wimpy dilletantes who cared more about some obscure species of root-growing bacteria than about people. It's simply not true. Some of the biggest conservationists I know are hunters and anglers who grasp that it's kind of hard to land a duck or a large-mouth bass in the parking lot of a strip mall.

When progressives failed to draw a distinction between the guy who likes to take his kids hunting once or twice a year and the crack dealer who mows down entire sidewalks full of innocent bystanders, we lost a generation of voters. I'm glad to see Obama acknowledge that hunters and anglers (and, ahem, sports-women, too) have a role in preserving resources for all of us.