Ann Althouse has a nice post approvingly quoting some of the more or less moderate-sounding comments Obama made during the recent campaign regarding guns, although she does make the surprising error of appearing to take him seriously.
She also failed to mention his misstatements — whether simply ignorant or slyly calculated to misinform and inflame — about automatic weapons, prompting the following comment from a concerned reader (me):
About the best that can be said even of Obama’s more moderate-sounding pronouncements such as the one you quote is that his misrepresentations are not automatic. They are semi-automatic, which means they happen only one at a time ever time he opens his mouth. For example, his stated attempt to ban “weapons that were designed for soldiers in war theaters … automatic weapons that kill folks in amazing numbers” reveals either inexcusable or willful ignorance. There are no “automatic weapons” on the streets, including the one used in the Conn. school, only semi-automatics. These are not “weapons that were designed for soldiers.”
And speaking of hypocrisy, Breitbart has just pointed out that the Obamas send their daughters to a school, Sidwell Friends, that has eleven armed guards.
Breitbart as a source, John? Are conservatives that depressed that you’ll resort to Breitbart commentary about why a President with the most DEATH THREATS in modern history would send his daughters to a school with eleven armed guards?
–Cobra
Those guards were there before the Obama girls, and they’ll be there after they leave.