Think Progress Contradicts Itself On Obama's Gun Control Position

April 10th, 2009 5:37 PM

In the wake of last Saturday's tragic cop killings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, left-wing new and old media representatives claimed the assailant was incited by supposedly false assertions from conservative talkers that President Obama was going to tighten gun laws.

One such outlet, the George Soros-funded Clinton front group Think Progress, offered the following hysterical headline hours after the shootings:

Right-wing’s false claims that Obama will take away guns ‘has helped fuel the panic buying of firearms.’

Yet, five days later, TP expressed concern the President is going back on campaign promises to -- wait for it! -- reinstate the assault weapons ban:

Is The Obama Administration Walking Back Its Commitment To Reinstating The Assault Weapons Ban?

In light of last week’s high-profile shooting sprees in which 16 people were killed, reporter Helen Thomas asked White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs whether the Obama administration would push to reinstate the Assault Weapons Ban that Republicans allowed to expire in 2004. Gibbs refused to endorse the ban, saying only that Obama would focus on enforcing existing laws...

So which is it, folks? Fortunately, TP answered this question for us (bolds and italics theirs):

[A]t the end of February, [Attorney General Eric] Holder said that one of the “gun-related changes” the administration would pursue “would be to reinstitute the ban on the sale of assault weapons.” And during the presidential campaign, Obama said making the Assault Weapons Ban permanent was part of an integral strategy to defeating urban violence. “From South Central L.A. to Newark, New Jersey, there’s an epidemic of violence that’s sickening the soul of this nation,” Obama said in June 2007. “The violence is unacceptable and it’s got to stop.”

In fact, in the “Urban Policy” section currently on the White House website, the Obama administration affirms its support of reinstating the Assault Weapons Ban:

· Address Gun Violence in Cities: … Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.

Quite comically, only five days after blaming conservative talkers for falsely accusing the Obama administration of wanting to tighten gun laws, TP concluded this piece by asking the following:

In the wake of news-grabbing gun violence, why is the Obama administration now backing off its repeated pledge to ban the most dangerous weapons that Obama previously said “belong on foreign battlefields and not on our streets“?

The hypocrisy is astounding, isn't it?

*****Update: CNN's Bill Schneider also believes the Obama administration wants stricter gun laws.