Obama Swings His Boomstick

The deniers came out just moments after the New Republic posted an interview with President Obama where he was asked if he had ever fired a gun. His response “Yes, in fact, up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time” gives us the first denier conspiracy of the year.

The questions immediately began from the ummm, well we have Truthers and Birthers…so let’s just call them Skeeters. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) took the first shot “”If he is a skeet shooter, why have we not heard of this? Why have we not seen photos?” Never mind that the President – all presidents since Eisenhower have used Camp David to get away from the press, get away from the glare  and don’t have their every move documented by photography. Odds are there are other things that have gone on at Camp David without many photographs…say walks in the woods, talking on the phone as examples.

Gun enthusiasts fora had a field day in criticizing the comment, the reality of it, and even circulated a photoshopped photo of Obama with a shotgun in an effort to discredit it. In their world view, it would not be possible for a person who wants to increase the safety of Americans with gun regulations would also shoot from time to time.

And that deeper issue, those in the gun community who intractably support the 2^nd Amendment, who support the NRA position, who want no regulations on firearms, they don’t believe, or don’t accept that there are gun owners who aren’t “on their side.” They present the case that ALL gun owners believe the same and ALL gun owners are anti-regulation and that “the other side” wants to confiscate their guns. The 30-40% of gun owners who are classified as liberal would beg to differ – well, if they weren’t banned from many of the gun fora when they try and make that simple point. Liberals also have a presence on the internet – The Liberal Gun Club…and they don’t tend to ban folks who have opposing views.

This issue will come down to this. Either folks will accept the statement by the President and the photograph for what they are or, for those who don’t live in an evidence based society, I suppose that, for years we will hear Skeeters talk about the time Obama went to the NASA sound stage where they had, 44 years earlier shot the fake Moon landing and whipped up “proof”. “Can’t you see the shadow of the chem-trails on the far right of the photo, on the pathway?”

So it goes.

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