In an AP story titled, “Obama supports individual gun rights,” Obama discussed yesterday’s tragic campus mass murder at Northern Illinois University and pointed out that he supports both gun control and “an individual’s rights to gun ownership.”

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.

“I think there is an individual right to bear arms, but it’s subject to commonsense regulation” like background checks, he said during a news conference.

…

At his news conference, he voiced support for the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns, which is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court next month.

So the constitution, according to Obama, says the individual has the right to possess firearms, unless you live in D.C.?

But that’s not the whole story on Obama and guns.

“As a state senator in Illinois, Obama supported banning the sale or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic firearms, increasing state restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms and requiring manufacturers to provide child-safety locks with firearms. He has also supported a ban on the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns. He sponsored a bill in 2000 limiting handgun purchases to one per month. He also voted against a 2004 measure allowing a self-defense exception for people charged with violating local weapons bans by using a gun in their home. Although out of line with most of his anti-gun voting history, in 1999, Obama voted “present” on SB 759, a bill that required mandatory adult prosecution for firing a gun on or near school grounds.

“Obama was also a board member of the Joyce Foundation which funds and maintains several gun control organizations in the United States.

“He supported several gun control measures, including restricting the purchase of firearms at gun shows and the reauthorization of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban.” (Source: wikipedia)

In prior candidate questionnaires on gun control, Obama has said:

* FAVORS banning the selling or transfer of all forms of semi-automatic weapons.
* FAVORS increased state restrictions on lawful gun ownership.
* OPPOSES reducing or maintaining current restrictions on lawful gun ownership; and
* OPPOSES allowing citizens to carry a concealed weapon

So Obama believes there’s an individual right to gun ownership, but believes that the government can prohibit you from owning or possess any handguns. He believes that local government should still be able to prosecute you for owning such a gun, even if you use it in self-defense in your own home.

Now, Clinton is also a firm gun control advocate, but who is Obama fooling here?

It’s ridiculous statements like this from Obama that goes unchallenged that makes me leery of him. If a kid had a gun on campus and killed this shooter, Obama would want that student punished for violating the school’s “gun-free zone” policy. But he wants people in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to believe that he really believes there’s an individual constitutional right to possess firearms (so long as it’s not an automatic weapon, a semi-automatic weapon, a handgun, a concealed weapon, or a weapon used in self-defense in your own home if the local government forbids gun possession.)

Obama’s ridiculous claim that he’s with those who believe in an individual’s constitutional right to bear arms despite this record is why I think more people should take a more critical eye of Obama before we proclaim him the Messiah of the Democratic Party.