DC Trawler

Obama To Rape Survivor: Guns For Me, Not For Thee

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Last week, Anderson Cooper was hanging out with Kathy Griffin. This week, he took a big step down.

I didn’t watch CNN’s townhall meeting on gun-grabbing, because it was on CNN. But people are talking about one of the participants, a woman named Kimberly Corban, who asked Obama this question:

So, a rape survivor defended her Constitutional right to bear arms in defense of herself and her family. And the President of the United States, struggling to look her in the eye, managed to stutter out the following:

“There are always questions as to whether or not, uh, having a firearm in the home protects you from that kind of violence. Uh, and I’m not sure we can resolve that. People argue it, both sides. What is true is, is that you have to be pretty well-trained in order to fire a weapon against somebody who is assaulting you and catches you by surprise. And what is also true is, there’s always the possibility that that firearm in a home leads to a tragic accident. Y’know, we can debate that, round or flat. But for now, what I just want to focus on is that you certainly would like to make it a little harder for that assailant to have also had a gun. You certainly would want to make sure that, if he gets released, that he now can’t do what he did to you to somebody else. And it’s gonna be easier for us to prevent him from getting a gun if there’s a strong background system in place. Background-check system in place. And, so, y’know, if you look the statistics, there’s no doubt that there are times where somebody who has a weapon has been able to protect themselves and scare off an intruder or an assailant. But what is more often the case is that they may not have been able to protect themselves, but, uh, they’re (sic) end up being the victim of the weapon that they purchased themselves. And, and, and that is, that’s something that can be debated. In the meantime, all I’m focused on is making sure that a terrible crime like yours that was committed is not made easier because somebody can go on the Internet and just buy whatever weapon they want, without us finding out whether they’re a criminal or not.”

And then Anderson finally threw in the towel. Boy, for such a great communicator, Obama sure is a stuttering, tone-deaf, insensitive birdbrain. Considering all the practice he’s had, you’d think by now he’d be a better liar.

This is a massive pile of filibustering horsecrap. For one thing, we already have a background-check system in place. As the great Charles C.W. Cooke has noted:

And you can’t just “go on the Internet and buy whatever weapon you want.” It’s highly regulated already, and Obama knows that.

He actually lectures this woman about how the rapist shouldn’t have had a gun. Did she say anything about the rapist having a gun? If he did have a gun, was he able to get it off the Internet with no background check? For that matter, how many people have been raped by someone who bought a gun off the Internet with no background check? Anybody have any numbers on that?

Obama says he doesn’t want to take away her guns, and then he yammers about how she’s going to hurt herself or her family. He’s lying right to the face of a rape survivor, lecturing her about things he knows aren’t true, because her story is politically inconvenient.

But what really gets me is his paternalistic tone. It’s a shame what happened to you, sweetie, but don’t you know you could shoot your eye out? While they’re sitting in a room that’s thoroughly protected by people with guns.

See, you have to be “pretty well-trained” to use a firearm against an assailant. In other words, it’s okay for Obama and his family to live under the protection of firearms. But if you can’t afford your own armed security, or you can’t get taxpayers to foot the bill, you’re just not competent enough to do it yourself.

What massive, blinkered arrogance. It’s a good thing Obama isn’t a Republican, or us crazy teabagging wingnuts wouldn’t be the only ones calling him out for shaming and lying to a rape survivor on national television.

I’m surprised he didn’t point to Germany. After all, they have some of the strictest gun laws in the world, and on New Year’s Eve, not a single one of those rape victims got shot.

Meanwhile: