LICATA: Senator, earlier this year you made a comment about rural citizens clinging to guns that got a lot of criticism, and many sportsmen took that to mean that you don't respect or understand the traditions of American hunters and shooters. How would you respond to that?
SENATOR OBAMA: Well, you know, look, when you're on a campaign trail, you're not always going to choose the perfect word. But what I was specifically referring to--and this is something that I've said before--is that when you've got a federal government that is doing nothing in terms of thinking about people's economic situation, then they don't end up voting on the basis of the economic issues. What they do expect is at the very least they can preserve those traditions that have been so important to them, like hunting, like their faith. That ends up being the focus of their attention. If I had said "relied on"--or that it's important to them--instead of "cling," there wouldn't have been a problem. You know, if you've been on the campaign trail and you're on your sixth event of the night, then you end up maybe choosing the wrong word. But if you talk to sportsmen in my home state of Illinois, they will tell you that I've always been a forceful advocate on behalf of the rights of sportsmen, on behalf of access for sportsmen and hunters. I've been somebody who, well before the recent Supreme Court case, stated my belief that the Second Amendment was an individual right.
LICATA: Do you agree with the Supreme Court's decision?
SENATOR OBAMA: What I think it has done is provided some clarity that, in fact, the Second Amendment is an individual right and that law-abiding gun owners can't be prevented from going out and hunting, protecting their family on their own. That doesn't mean that, as Justice Scalia and the Supreme Court noted, it doesn't mean that we can't have some common-sense gun control legislation out there-for example, background checks, making sure that we're keeping guns out of the hands of criminals or people who have mental illnesses. The important point is that I am very mindful of the fact that sportsmen in America may have gone hunting with their fathers, their grandfathers, their mothers, their grandmothers, and that this is part of a tradition and a way of life that has to be preserved. And there's nothing that I will do as president of the United States that will in any way encroach on the ability of sportsmen to continue that tradition.
LICATA: You mentioned common-sense gun legislation. Would you consider the assault weapons ban and registration of guns to fall into that category of common-sense gun control?
SENATOR OBAMA: I think those are two separate issues. I think that when it comes to the assault weapons ban, the answer is yes. I think AK-47s generally are not used for hunting. AK-47s or vest-piercing bullets are generally used to hurt people. And I think that it's legitimate for us to say military-style weapons that aren't traditionally used for purposes other than killing people, we've got to be careful about. But I'll be honest with you. I'm more interested in enforcing the laws that we do have-for example, tracing guns that are used in crimes back to people who have been using them. I don't anticipate that there's going to be a whole slew of efforts at the federal level when it comes to gun control. But I think that strong background checks; making sure that we're dealing with the gun-show loophole, which I think has been a problem; allowing us to trace guns that are used in crimes back to where they were purchased--those are the kinds of initiatives that I think pose no threat whatsoever to law-abiding gun owners.
http://www.fieldandstream.com/articles/hunting/2008/09/exclusive-interview-senator-barack-obama
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