Obama's Sporting Platform:
“Were it not for America’s hunters and anglers, including the great icons like Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold, our nation would not have the tradition of sound game management, a system of ethical, science-based game laws and an extensive public lands estate on which to pursue the sport.”
“As president, Barack Obama would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama also favors commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals who shouldn’t have them. He supports closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof.”
Source: BARACKOBAMA.COM
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An Exclusive Interview with Senator Barack Obama
Our editor-in-chief Anthony Licata sat down with Illinois Senator Barack Obama to ask him about the issues that matter most to sportsmen in this election; conservation, gun rights, and the outdoors. His answers may surprise you.
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.
LICATA: You are a big supporter of ethanol to help us with our fuel problems. But the more ethanol production, the fewer lands that farms are putting in the Farm Bill CRP program. You also support giving increased money for farmers to put land in that program. How do you reconcile those two things? How do we both preserve the habitat and produce ethanol? SENATOR OBAMA: The CRP, I think, is critically important. And you're right. I was glad to see increased emphasis on that in the Farm Bill. It didn't go as far as I'd like to see it go. I think that corn-based ethanol is a transitional technology. It's helped us build an infrastructure for biodiesel and biofuels that we can build on in the future. But I think that what we've got to be looking at are efforts using cellulosic ethanol, switchgrass, wood chips, nonfood approaches, and what we've got to do is help farmers to figure out how can they make some money using stuff that is not being used right now as opposed to the only way that they can make money...is with corn-based ethanol that not only it has some limits in terms of energy efficiency, but also consumes an awful lot of water.
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