NRA president: Door-to-door gun confiscation a "legitimate fear"

The National Rifle Association didn't disagree with everything in President Obama's proposal today to cut back on escalating gun violence, the group's president David Keene told CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Bill Plante today, but with coming talks of reform, he said there are "legitimate" fears on the horizon for law-abiding gun owners.

One of his fears: that a universal background check for anyone purchasing a firearm - the first of Mr. Obama's suggestions today - would lead to a national tracking registry of gun owners. That, in turn, Keene said, could give way to "forced buybacks," or, door-to-door confiscation of specific weapons by the government.

"In other words, 'I have a record that you have a shotgun, and you're going to sell it to the government, or else,'" Keene said. "That's the equivalent of confiscation."

Keene said when others suggest harboring such a concern is simply "being paranoid," "you point to senators and governors who want to do exactly that," he said. "The governor of Illinois said they want to knock on doors and confiscate guns. That's not an irrational fear."

Another point of disagreement was Mr. Obama's call to reinstate and strengthen the assault weapons ban. Keene indicated that a hammer, one of the deadliest weapons in recent years, has been more to blame for rising murder tolls in the United States than semiautomatic weapons.

"Very few of these guns are ever used for crime," Keene said. "I think in 2010 or 2011, more people in this country were beaten to death than killed by all our arms, including shotguns, so-called 'assault weapons,' and rifles."

Though the popular AR-15 assault rifle was used to carry out tragedies like the massacre in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater this summer, or last month's shooting spree at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school, Keene said, "they're legitimate firearms in legitimate hands."

There is some common ground to be found, though, Keene insisted. Improving the detection of mental illnesses and harshening prosecution for law-breaking gun owners, Keene said, are among Mr. Obama's proposals that the NRA can get behind.

"Our disappointment with what the president said today," Keene said, "was that it was not a statement designed to protect kids, but to use the protection of kids, really, to advance what was ultimately an ideological agenda."

[mdt1960]

Yes, hammers have been known to be a weapon and given their functional design use and commonality, a popular one it seems. Now, if a semi-automatic gun were only a popular substitute when one can't find a hammer this assclown would have a legitimate argument.

[LcplOfMarines]

Over. My. Cold. Dead. Hands. Do as you will but I nor any brother of mine will submit to the Dictator of the U.S.S.A. Sad to think I proudly served for this s*** hole, hope is lost. I dont want any part of this tyranny.

[womiles]

The NRA has successfully managed over the past forty years to enlarge the scope of the 2nd Amendment to embrace "rights" not conceived and never intended by the framers of the US Constitution, recent constructionist interpretations by judicial activists on the US Supreme Court not withstanding.

But, "it is a long lane that has no turning". I totally reject the notion that more guns, bigger guns, louder guns and/or more heavily loaded guns make citizens safer in their person or freer in their body politick. I utterly deny NRA principles and postures that presuppose gun violence as a right, effective or moral remedy for some fancied "tyranny" in this country (because, after all, it's not really about hunting, is it?) and I defy anyone to show that shooting anybody, for any reason, is consistent with the teachings of Jesus or the spirit of Christ.

Still, the "well regulated militia" that the Constitution spoke about in the 18th century is the National Guard in the 20th & 21st. If the NRA wants to "promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty", it might encourage enlistment in that body and desist from stonewalling reasonable control of privately owned weapons capable of mass murder by individuals on the basis of their personal discernment and choice, whether sane or insane.

Further, the NRA-cultivated alarm to any supposed, existing, or forth-coming "tyranny" is, at bottom, simply seditious (as well as fatuous). Honestly, what "Red Dawn", after all, do they - or any rational person - fantasize?

Finally, I am convinced that the NRA's touting of spurious 2nd Amendment "rights" shows them to be toadies of the gun manufacturing industry rather than responsible advocates for a peaceable society.

Seriously. Try to get a grip...

[RPMartinson]

The NRA represents Gun manufactures who pay their Million dollars salaries. What they truly fear are the CDC studies they have shut down funding for since 1993 because they started to show that more guns don't make us safer, Guns in the home are much more likely to be used to kill a family member or Suicide then used in self defense. This hurts the finely crafted message the NRA uses because it will be shown to be completely false. Watch to see if Congress funds this Executive Order or will it be killed before the ink is dry. Comprehensive studies like this will answer Gun violence issues and force common sense solutions. CDC studies on car accidents paved the way for seat belt laws and others that have reduced traffic fatalities by over 50% yearly. That would be a huge win to do the same for gun deaths.

[stamicrach]

FOR ONCE; i actually agree with the NRA.

Even law enforcement officers are against new
restrictions and new law being passed in reference to our right to bear arms.

Legislating new gun laws is NOT going to stop the violence.!

The real problem is that the current gun laws already on the books are NOT enforced.

Reflect on Obama's attempted machination of the Second Amendment and you will find he has been trying to chip away at this Amendment since the first day of his first term.

Obama's goal is to turn the US into a Socialist country.

DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY WITH IT.!!

[AllottaFagina]

Next, the gubmint will try-n-take my claymores and RPG's!

[hypnotoad72]

So what will he do, shoot people if he demands he turn over his guns?


P.S. Second amendment: "Well-regulated" was instilled by the amendment's creators for very valid reasons.

[legalbutunjust]

it's pathological, fundamentalist fear-mongering at its lowest, and the NRA should know this.

What they are REALLY saying is, "Oh me, oh my, what happens to our liberties when in confrontation with laws unto which we will not comply?"

[PourpaixPourpaix]

Forget the nonsense of the fear of door-to-door gun confiscation and accept it as an absolute necessity.

Oh, yeah, it's guaranteed that the socialists will overrun the country to everybody's abuse if we eliminate private gun ownership. Like that happened in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, England .......

These same fools absolutely, positively guaranteed us that if we let Communism flourish in Vietnam, they will soon be pounding us into submission on every street corner in America. Well, the Communists took over Vietnam over 35 years ago. Where's the rubber hoses and boot treatment for America. It isn't coming, and only fools listen to the gun and violence crowd. They only say what they say because they need a gun in the house to diddle Gramma when she becomes overly irritating.

[legalbutunjust]

OUTBACK_JACKSON says:"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie says it is 'reprehensible' for the National Rifle Association to run an ad bringing President Barack Obama's daughters into the gun-control debate."



Not only is the hyperbolic message from the NRA gun nuts reprehensible, but also showing their sheer desperation on the losing end of this battle, since the vast majority of Americans want stricter gun laws, including a whopping 92% of Americans wanting universal background checks!
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And another 4.2 million adults, about 1.2% of Americans, want ZERO action performed- zilch, nada, nuttin'. The remaining 7% are their neighbors or best friend. Or, perhaps, "second best"; the guns they each have come first and foremost above everyone and all else.

[legalbutunjust]

it's pathological, fundamentalist fear-mongering at its lowest, and the NRA should know this.

[janenotsoplain]

It's another NRA nutball.

[Ob0zo1]

Yes, yes. Government is good. Politicians are good. We would never do anything bad for you. Now just hand over your guns and all will be well.
FOOLS.

[hypnotoad72]

How is privatization better? What makes a large company's edicts better than a government's?

I mean, you make it sound very easy. But your one-liners being statements and not questions... who's the real fool?