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Obama Pushes Gun Control in Minnesota: ‘Changing the Status Quo Is Never Easy’

Feb. 4, 2013 5:07pm Jason Howerton

President Barack Obama Pushes Gun Control in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – FEBRUARY 4: U.S. President Barack Obama speaks before a crowd of local leaders and law enforcement officials at the Minneapolis Police Department Special Operations Center on February 4, 2013 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. President Obama is promoting a ban on assault weapons and expanded background checks on gun buyers. (Credit: Getty Images)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — With his gun proposals dividing Congress, President Barack Obama conceded Monday the challenges he faces in winning support for measures ranging from criminal checks on gun buyers to an assault weapons ban. But, he declared: “We don’t have to agree on everything to agree it’s time to do something.”

Obama argued that there’s bipartisan support for universal background checks and for gun trafficking laws. But, acknowledging the political challenges he faces, he would say only that the assault weapons ban deserves a vote in Congress.

“Changing the status quo is never easy,” Obama said. “This will be no exception. The only way we can reduce gun violence in this county is if the American people decide it’s important, if you decide it’s important – parents and teachers, police officers and pastors, hunters and sportsmen, Americans of every background stand up and say, ‘This time, it’s got to be different.’”

Before his remarks, Obama held a roundtable discussion at the Minneapolis Police Department Special Operations Center, speaking with law enforcement and community leaders.

Obama made his pitch in Minnesota, a Democratic-leaning state where officials have been studying ways to reduce gun-related attacks and accidents for several years. It was the first he has campaigned on his proposals outside of Washington.

Ahead of the trip, the White House released a photo of the president skeet shooting at Camp David, the presidential retreat. Obama cited skeet shooting when asked in a recent interview whether he had ever shot a gun.

The president unveiled his sweeping package of proposals for curbing gun violence last month after the mass shootings at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school. But many of the proposals face tough opposition from some in Congress and from the National Rifle Association.

Reinstatement of the assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, is expected to be the steepest climb for Obama. Universal background checks for gun purchasers may have an easier time passing Congress, though the NRA also opposes that measure.

White House press secretary Jay Carney, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, said Obama remained committed to the assault weapons ban and it was too early to write off prospects for any part of the package.

“We all recognize that all the components of this are difficult and face challenges, some perhaps even more than others,” Carney said. “But the president’s support is firm and clear.”

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has said he hopes his panel can write gun legislation this month, though it’s unclear what it will contain.

The White House picked Minneapolis as the backdrop for Obama’s remarks in part because of recent steps the city has taken to tackle gun violence, including a push for stricter background checks.

After a spike in violent crimes, the city launched a program in 2008 aimed at providing more resources for at-risk youth and helping rehabilitate young people who have already perpetrated crimes. In January, Minneapolis also hosted a regional summit on gun violence for elected officials from around the Midwest.

Minneapolis Police Chief Janee Harteau and Hennepin County Sheriff Richard Stanek are also among the officials Obama has consulted as he pursues his anti-gun violence measures.

Stanek has also been leading a group of Minnesota sheriffs pushing for stronger background checks for people trying to buy guns.

The ban on assault weapons faces more obstacles in Congress, where Republicans and some Democrats are aligned against it. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that he’s willing to take a look at legislation that would ban certain semi-automatic weapons, but he also noted that he voted against a ban on such weapons in 1994 because it “didn’t make sense.”

Among those participating in the round table discussion Monday with Obama was Minneapolis’s Democratic mayor, R.T. Rybak, who said he supports Obama’s proposed bans on assault weapons and high capacity magazine, as well as universal background checks.

Earlier in the day, Rybak criticized Reid for his stand. “He’s dancing around this issue and people are dying in this country,” Rybak said on MSNBC.

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Comments (149)

RDavis49
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 8:14pm
BryanB………. Cops don’t pass up the opportunity for over-time, and it doesn’t make a differences to them how they get it……..

Yep, it’s all about the dollar right Bryan? Your oath of office, your principles, your morals, your patriotic stance on issues don’t matter so long as you can bring in the dollar…. Pathetic

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barber2
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:51pm
Wouldn’t you love to know what other ” sweeping changes” on various other topics were already written up by the Soros funded Center For American Progress (!?) crowd and filed in a locked drawer in Valeria Jarrett’s office !?

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Rileydj
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:44pm
“Pry my gun from my cold dead hands oh Maggot in Chief”
I’m a combat vet who always respected the office, even under the Carter and Clinton fiascos.
But this anti American socialist pig gets nothing from me. I would turn my back if ever we crossed paths. ( I’d have to keep from spitting on him!)

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vrooomvrooom
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:40pm
I agree with this.. “Changing the status quo is never easy,” Obama said. “This will be no exception. The only way we can reduce gun violence in this county is if the American people decide it’s important, if you decide it’s important – parents and teachers, police officers and pastors, hunters and sportsmen, Americans of every background stand up and say, ‘This time, it’s got to be different.’” The STATUS QUO IS GUN CONTROL POS. Why don’t you start by not punishing the law abiding and destroying the Constitution! That would take a REAL courageous step in the right direction. Give Zimmerman a key to the city’s gun safe.

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jackact
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:32pm
It is not practical to fear what ultimately will fail.
FEAR feeds communism.
When “The People” recognize our obvious majority socialism becomes a wallflower again.
Engage.

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Leveraction3030
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:26pm
GB fix your darn website. You type a message webpage goes blank and then posts website has a problem. Type it again and it prints multiples of the same thing in comments section and/or cuts out part of the original comment or posts nothing but a blank.

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media-bias-steals-elections
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:21pm
When President Obama and his hush hush “civilian national police force, as strong as the miiltary” explain why you ordered all that ammunition for the Dept of Homeland Security, maybe, just maybe, we’ll explain why we will not consider the infringement of the right to bear legal arms previously sold in the United States of America, as nothing less than an attack on our civil rights?

Explain that one Mr. Pierce CIA wanna bee Morgan?

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avguy69
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:18pm
We need to stop trying to fix social issues with Gun control! Why do these people use Guns to get drugs or rob someone of items they worked to earn? We are in an America that is morally on a set of greased rails headed to Hell. It’s not necessarily about religion, but about right, wrong and respecting another human and having compassion for each other. The family unit has been wiped out. Gone are the days of the family sitting down for dinner and enjoying each other’s company. We are too wrapped up in texting, tweeting or facebooking to raise our children or letting our children use the same things to draw them away from the family. Let’s look at the shows on TV today; what kind of family dynamic, values and morals do they depict. I don’t have to call out these shows. Every day I see people acting out and conducting them self’s like the actors seen in these so called reality shows. Some people act like they are entitled to things they have not earned. Some will turn to guns to take what they want, but have never earned. Use a gun to get the respect they think they deserve, but never earned. I was watching some old Andy Griffith shows (black & white) a few weeks ago. Every show had a life or family lesson attached to it and if the kids got out of line, well there’s the old wood shed out back to bring them back in line!

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- barber2
  Posted on February 4, 2013 at 8:26pm
  Agree. Our society has taken a plunge downward. One cause is that the Discrimination Card , used too widely , has resulted in a society which has no standards and no moral compass. Everyone wants to Blame someone rather than to accept responsibility for their own development. And another cause is the failure to keep the old American values of hard work, independence, saving your money, understanding civics and the Constitution, and following the Golden Rule has created a society of uneducated, angry, entitled , dysfunctional leeches who are all about ” getting” stuff rather than contributing and flourishing within the freedoms this society affords them. This failure is not by accident. This destruction is by design. Democrats should hang their heads in shame. But the MSM, which Soros and the International Left has funded, will spew more of their propaganda.
  
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- Tigress1
  Posted on February 4, 2013 at 9:00pm
  Agreed, but I was watching Andy Griffith a few weeks ago too, and Andy Taylor pulled over some big whig journalist and gave him a ticket. The journalist told his assistant: “Go dig up whatever dirt you can on that Sheriff. I want to PULVERIZE him!” That’s when the media started going downhill!
  
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cowboy357
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:15pm
What no speech in home town Chicago? What’s up with that…didn’t he organize this community?

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- JB7659
  Posted on February 4, 2013 at 10:48pm
  No, it’s too dangerous in Chicago due to such strict firearms laws !
  
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Whatmeworry-never
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:14pm
You all forget what he wants and what he said on his first campaign. I am quoting from memory so maybe missed some phrases, Dear Leader Obama stated, “The Constitutions Bill of Rights is a set of rights that RESTRICTS what government can do.” “I want to establish the second Bill of Rights that states what the Government must do for the people.” “Things like the right to work, the right to a house, the right to healthcare, etc.” His idea of a Bill of rights is based on the Communist manifesto and states the same constitutional rights that he wants in his Bill of Rights.

He is not a Communist, nor a Socialist, nor a Marxist, he is entirely a new brand of -ist, he is an Obamunist. He is trying to create his idea of Marxist/socialist all rolled into one, as long as it is anti European he is good with that.

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uvgtafrnd2
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:10pm
The YMCA “Young Mens Communist Association”

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Leveraction3030
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:10pm
Visits the land of 10% black to preach about gun control. What a hypocrite. Next off to the Dakotas, Wyoming and Montana to straighten them out on all that black on black murder and hate up there. If he wants to solve the problem with guns he should hit the high spots where it is a problem. Detroit, Chicago, New Orleans, Houston, Cleveland, Miami, L.A., and so on. The illegal guns and the drugs that warrant the gang use are in your Blue States Ofurher. Go to where your voters are if you want to solve the problem and not where there is little or no problem. What a hypocrite. Of course MN loves Al Franken so the bulk of those idiots will probably fall right in line and sport the Brown Shirts anyway.
MN

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Leveraction3030
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:00pm
Add your comments

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Leveraction3030
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:00pm
Interesting he goes to Minnesota 10% black vs. his home state/city Chicago that is almost triple that figure in black population. If he was true in his feelings about guns why is he to scared to go home to the city with the highest murder rate and black on black murder in the country with illegal guns stolen or bought by the gangs with drug money? Mighty strange to go to a place so far down on the list it does not make the top ten in black on black murder. What a hypocrite. He will probably head to North Dakota and Montana next to discuss this heated issue that effects the Midwest and mountain regions.
Go where your voters are and tell them. They are the issue not whitey land. Chicago, Detroit, Miami, LA,

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loveoursoldiers
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:00pm
Tell your friends “noone is going to take yout guns away”
same as
“and you will be able to keep your doctor”
MOTSBS
noone believes a lying liar

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Frederick_Douglass_Republican
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:54pm
Does Dear Leader think that lining up a bunch of white ******* pigs in uniform behind him make what he is saying something I will listen to? Those crackers disgrace their uniforms. They are disgusting pigs.

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Nanaswords
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:53pm
Another Flight Trip…Another Dollar… There is always a ready-shovel stimulas pkg. for the wh admin. expense file !!!

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skippy6
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:52pm
Stand your ground…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NelBNtNm8l0

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AbrahamsSheepdog
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:48pm
How long till SHTF?

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- Outlaw_Josey_Wales
  Posted on February 4, 2013 at 8:55pm
  I believe it will happen during obama second term.
  
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AbrahamsSheepdog
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:45pm
He speaks peace, and calls for war. Change isa comin

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- loveoursoldiers
  Posted on February 4, 2013 at 7:03pm
  Worry about grown men getting hurt playing football while sEnding women into combat
  I guess the question then becomes.. You DO have a daughter.. would you send her into combat? She might get hurt.. and possibly more than a concussion
  
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skippy6
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:39pm
Welcome to the land of loons and cheated elections Al Frankin ,Dayton, Klobuchar….Progressive control freaks….

“We don’t have to agree on everything to agree it’s time to do something. AND HE WILL….

Just like Barry care, gun control will be shoved down the throats of law abiding citizens….He just can’t let this go no matter what! Look at all of the useful idiot cops behind him, how pathetic and sad they look…..

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Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:27pm
These staged events are quite the bore. How anyone can’t see through this? It’s so blatantly insulting to anyone with any degree of intellect. Yep– I will be swayed by jackbooted thugs regarding a law abiding citizen’s RIGHT to defend themselves from ANYTHING. NOT! Nor will I be swayed by the intellect of 6 year olds on the other stage.

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MDECKER
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:22pm
Yeah, like Minneapolis is representative of all law enforcement. I heard from a credible source that Al Franken did his stand-up routine at break out.

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Glockfan19
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:22pm
Here’s something simple Obama can do: “Try shutting your Marxist Damn Mouth” for starters! Resign from Office or be impeached is another!

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GuruMeditation
Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:16pm
That guy is quite the pusher, is he not?

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- Ghandi was a Republican
  Posted on February 4, 2013 at 6:31pm
  He’s a pitiful carpet ******. A huckster of snake oil. I like the status quo. Like the U.S. Constitution is some “status quo” to be dealt with by a marxist muslim who picks and choses what laws he can make of choose to enforce.
  Hey LowBow “IT’S THE CONSTITUTION STUPID”
  
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