Obama "fired up" and has town hall on guns scheduled for Thursday

President Barack Obama is going to be holding a prime-time town hall meeting this week on CNN to discuss guns. Deadline has what scant details there are on what’s going to happen Thursday night.

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In a move that is certain to stir things up as the political new year unfolds, President Obama will lead a televised town hall Thursday to address tightening restrictions on access to guns. Obama will sit down with Anderson Cooper on CNN at 8 p.m. ET for the one-hour event titled “Guns in America,” which coincides with the fifth anniversary, next Friday, of the shooting of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, in a mass shooting that left six dead and 13 others wounded.

Obama will also take questions from the audience. The President has repeatedly expressed his frustration with Congress’ unwillingness to pass new gun laws and has frequently spoken out about increased gun control in the wake of mass shootings.

I can hardly contain my excitement about the event (note sarcasm). It wouldn’t be surprising if those questions from the audience get heavily vetted before they’re asked, even though there will be at least one or two, “I own a gun, why should I be worried?” or “I’m a hunter, are you going to take away my guns” questions asked. The President will probably explain he isn’t interested in going after “law-abiding citizens,” but when the la-sorry-executive actions actually target those “law-abiding citizens” how can they be trusted? This isn’t stopping Obama from trying to play on the emotional strings of everyday Americans. His latest attempt happened in his weekly address.

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Since then, tens of thousands of our fellow Americans have been mowed down by gun violence. Tens of thousands. Each time, we’re told that commonsense reforms like background checks might not have stopped the last massacre, or the one before that, so we shouldn’t do anything.

We know that we can’t stop every act of violence. But what if we tried to stop even one? What if Congress did something – anything – to protect our kids from gun violence?

This is the problem with the “do something” caucus, which tends to be filled with all sorts of political stripes depending on the issue. But it also ignores the facts when it comes to people buying firearms, especially those who used them in mass shootings or terrorist attacks. The San Bernardino terrorists legally purchased firearms from a dealer, and had a relative buy the semi-automatic rifles used in the attack from a dealer. The latter is illegal under the law and there’s no way to actually track where a gun goes, unless “Big Brother” should be able to track every gun (it shouldn’t). The Aurora guns were bought legally from dealerships, and the Sandy Hook guns were stolen from the shooter’s mom. The only time it appears a gun bought from a “private seller” at a gunshow was then used in a mass shooting was in the 1999 Columbine shooting. So the Left’s idea of, “oh we have to do something,” is washed out by the facts. But this isn’t going to stop them from trying to get something done, because facts don’t mean anything when it comes to agendas. The emotional, heart-wrenching pictures of children dead, funerals, and people crying will always outweigh the facts. It’s easy to sit there and yell, “Do something!” instead of realizing people who really want to do something, will find a way to do it.

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But that’s not going to stop the President and his allies from pushing the narrative of something has to be done. Obama meets with Attorney General Loretta Lynch today on what “our options” (his words) are when it comes to gun control. He’ll probably leak some details of what the plan is during Thursday’s town hall. The question the President should be asked, but probably won’t, is this: “Mr. President, why do you want to pass a law or do action you think will prevent mass shootings, when almost all of the firearms used in mass shootings are legally purchased?” That question will then force Obama to explain why he wants a useless law or action to pass. This is probably why Obama doesn’t want this question to be asked at all. He’ll either have to dodge the question or admit what he wants done won’t work. This forces the President and the Left to actually go to the “next step” in their push, whatever that may be. If it’s a gun-free society, as Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt and Vox writer German Lopez suggested last October, then let them own that. Once an elected politician goes there, then the real fight is on. It’s probably going to get there at some point, so the time to start preparing for that argument is now. This means finding better strategies than “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun ” and pointing out actually situations where that happened (Kristina Ribali wrote about her experience here at Hot Air). It’s not going to stop the Left’s rhetoric, especially those who want all guns banned, but pointing out the “good guy” stories will do more than any actual quote will do. It’s the only way to win this fight over guns and what America’s future is as a nation that has the Second Amendment in the Constitution.

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