Should President Obama buy back America’s guns?

Before his fundraising trip to Seattle, President Obama stopped in Roseburg, Oregon, the scene of a mass shooting at a community college last week.

Many people protested the president’s visit over his recent statements on gun control.

John Curley: So has he changed his tune then? Because four hours after the shooting he came on and said, Listen, I am going to politicize this.

Tom Tangney: He hasn’t changed his tune in terms in terms of his politics, but that tune was never meant for Roseburg consumption during his visit.

JC: I would think in Douglas County he probably didn’t poll so well when he ran.

TT: Thirty-eight percent [voted for Obama], first time out, and 35 percent second time … It’s a rural area of Oregon. Oregon is a very blue state, but just like in Eastern Washington, there are strong pockets of conservatives.

JC: Why doesn’t he just come right out … and say “Listen, why don’t we just re-examine the second amendment. There’s a lot of talk as to whether or not what they mean when they talk about a militia. Why don’t we find some space in there and do what they did in Australia. It worked in Australia. Let’s confiscate the guns; do a buy-back program.” In Australia, they did a one-time tax on all residents to raise the revenue to then buy back the guns. Why doesn’t he do that? If he feels he has the American soul, and can speak for people, and can say “Let’s stop this”… why doesn’t he step up and say, “Listen, we want your guns. We’d like to buy them back. And we believe then we will have peace in this land.”

TT: Well, first, he knows that will never fly in this country &#8212 at least politically. Even when he tried something much more demure after the shootings in Newtown, he got nowhere. He’s not going to go out that far. I don’t know that he wants to re-examine the Second Amendment. The Supreme Court has already ruled on that &#8212 it doesn’t just refer to a militia, it does refer to any citizen.

JC: If he can point to the statistics of Australia, and say listen, “It worked there. They haven’t had mass shootings since the buy-back program. Let’s do it here in the United States.”

TT: By the way, it hasn’t been perfect in Australia. As much as I like the idea, there has been that one mass shooting. It’s not that they’ve stopped all mass shootings.

JC: Well, they had 226 deaths in 2014 by gun. Why not go that way?

TT: Because this is the sort of thing that you do in academic circles. You can make the argument because it doesn’t have repercussions. But that would never fly in this country and he realizes that. He thought, “Ya know what, maybe we should politicize this, because it’s a political decision that we will have to make on guns.” But he said that with resignation because it’s not flying in this country.