Obama Still Believes Assault Weapons Ban is Good Policy

During a joint Q&A session with the Mexican President yesterday, both President Obama and President Calderon were asked about the expired American ban on certain semi-automatic firearms.

President Obama was asked if he had backed off on his campaign promise to push for a renewal of the ban and if so, how would he explain his broken campaign promise to the American people? Obama responded:

I haven't backed off at all from my belief that the assault weapons ban made sense...Having said that, none of us are under any illusion that reinstating that ban would be easy. What we've focused on is how we can improve our enforcement under existing laws.

It's interesting that he chided "those who have put off the hard decisions" in a speech earlier in the week during a speech at Georgetown University, but I digress.

The President went on to day that he continue to believe that we can respect and honor the Second Amendment right in our Constitution, throwing out the obligatory support to the rights of sportsmen and hunters. He even mentioned the rights of those who want firearms for self-defense (this from a man who was quoted on the campaign trail as being an opponent of concealed carry). But he immediately returned to the talking points on the teleprompter by saying we can respect the rights of all of these people and still help Mexico fight the crime committed by the drug cartels.

Both Obama and Calderon referenced the now debunked figure of 90% of illegal guns in Mexico come from the U.S.