Huffington Magazine Issue 21 | Page 30

Voices cans — such as banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and restricting the sale of unlimited amounts of ammunition — and leave the core of the “right to bear arms” intact so that citizens can continue to protect their homes and families. This will net him the valuable moral support of the wider public and give him a true mandate to restore sanity in our society. The reality is that after the recent string of massacres, starting in Colorado, America is getting extremely tired of senseless shootings, and even more tired of the reckless attitude of gun rights advocates who choose to ignore the gun violence sweeping our nation. Not only is the NRA’s campaign to glorify guns irresponsible, its opposition to even common-sense gun laws like background checks is blatantly unpatriotic and dangerous. It gets away with this sort of recklessness because of the vast sums of money at its disposal, which it can use for misinformation campaigns and lobbying — and because of the lack of political will in Washington to tackle gun control. But I view Obama as the type of SANJAY SANGHOEE HUFFINGTON 11.04.12 man who does not intimidate easily and who, once he decides to do so, could really give the NRA a run for its money. Anyone who doubts this should remember how he won the battle on health care and the ferocity with which he pushed it through in the end, despite the machinations of the Republican Party and the insurance companies. Whether you like Obamacare or not, the president’s mettle on that was undeniable. The NRA knows this and also knows Should that, should Obama Obama get four get four more years, more years, he is likely to take he is likely to on gun control and take on gun put a serious dent in control and put the group’s efforts to a serious dent bully America into in the group’s submission. That is efforts to bully precisely why the America into organization is going submission.” after him now, and why it’s worried that he might win on Tuesday. It may be an unintentional compliment, but the NRA has revealed its own belief that Obama is a tough president who can get things done, and in the process, given all of us another reason to vote for him.