“[Barack Obama] said some scholars argue the Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees gun ownerships only to militias, but he believes it grants individual gun rights.” “‘I think there is an individual right to bear arms, but it’s subject to commonsense regulation’ like background checks, he said during a news conference.”
On the other hand,
Although Obama supports gun control, while campaigning in gun-friendly Idaho earlier this month, he said he does not intend to take away people’s guns.
At his news conference, [Prof. Obama] voiced support for the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns, which is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court next month.
Sounds like it’s a pretty thin form of “individual rights” he supports — and he doesn’t intend to take away people’s guns, except if they’re the very sort of gun that people are most likely to want to keep for self-defense purposes. (Though, to be fair, the Bush Administration’s Justice Department seems to have taken a view that may amount to the same thing.) Or maybe he as President wouldn’t campaign to take away people’s guns, but thinks it’s OK if “local jurisdictions,” including federal ones, ban people from owning handguns. Hard to tell for sure.
Hat tip: How Appealing.