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White House releases photo of Obama firing gun

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Oh, how pathetic. Would the right wing be happier if he was shattering the skull of a deer with that shot rather than a clay target? Don't sink to this level Mr Obama, show a bit of class.

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

Quote: The rifle is cocked in Obama’s left shoulder, his left index finger is on the trigger and smoke is coming from the barrel.

Yeah, ... well, two sets of smoke coming from the barrel...? What's the sideways smoke?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

What's the sideways smoke?

That's the exhaust gas from the shell being vented upwards to lessen the recoil. Skeet rifles that are not vented have a serious recoil kick back if your not expecting it and if you haven't tucked the rifle butt into your shoulder area properly to "lean into the shot" . It will give you a pretty good bruise there if your a novice skeet shooter.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

I still think the NRA can learn something positive from Mr.Obama!! Just right now not too sure what they can learn.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Obama spoke the words "gun control". NRA wing nutters of course heard "a total ban on all guns". So Obama has to show them a picture to prove he is not talking about a total ban on all guns.

Sadly, we know it will not work since the voices NRA wing nutters hear is not the voice of God but just plain old schizophrenia, and they will still refuse to lift a finger to aid the gun murder crisis in America, and either continue with the same red herring or troll up another.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Awkward, Mr. President...

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Pathetic PR attempt.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

This is almost as funny as that photo of Michael Dukakis sitting in an Army tank.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Skeet shooting with a rifle?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Even a photo (real?) of him wearing full battle dress and firing a current machine gun makes absolutely no difference. What matters is the legislation being attempted to have ramrodded.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Unbelievable, good Lord.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Beyond pathetic but it just goes to show how low he thinks he has to stoop to satisfy the insane gun NRA nuts. At least he's making an effort.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

Since the article just wants to cover for Obama and not mention why the photo was released in the first place. Here's the background:

The article does state: " In a recent interview with The New Republic magazine, Obama said “yes” when asked if he has ever fired a gun. He said “we do skeet shooting all the time," But pathetically leaves it at that.

The interview in fact actually raised a few eyebrows in those Journalists that actually still have the temerity to not just take for granted anything the President says as 100 percent true. Since President Obama has never ever once prior to this interview said he had shot a gun or skeet at all. They asked his Press Secretary about it ( The nerve!!!) The New York Times actually does give the history on this in the ever decreasing random acts of real journalism.

The skeet-shooting comment caught many off guard because it is not something the president has talked about. While other presidents have used the skeet-shooting range at Camp David, database searches of Mr. Obama’s speeches and interviews turned up no mention of participating.

“I would refer you simply to his comments,” Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, told reporters who asked after the interview was published how often the president shoots. “I don’t know how often. He does go to Camp David with some regularity, but I’m not sure how often he’s done that.”

Asked why no one had seen a picture or heard about it before, Mr. Carney said, “Because when he goes to Camp David, he goes to spend time with his family and friends and relax, not to produce photographs.”

Jon Stewart of “The Daily Show” made fun of Mr. Obama’s statement as well as those who doubted it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/03/us/politics/obamas-skeet-shooting-comments-draw-fire.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0

Even Jon Stewart had doubts that President Obama is a big fan of shooting skeet when he can get a chance to blast a few clay targets, and when Jon Stewart has doubts the White-house knows it has to finally put of some real proof to the public, after all the man is a Comedian for goodness sakes.

Pathetic isn't the word for this at all. More like

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Apologies, submitted to fast.

The finished thought was: Pathetic isn't the word for this at all. More like just another sorry example of A.P journalism.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Sail, what's truly pathetic is how some people think the president should have ever 'needed' to fire a gun in the first place.

Background checks on his speeches? Why? Who cares whether he has fired a gun or not?

That's what is ridiculous.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

Sail, what's truly pathetic is how some people think the president should have ever 'needed' to fire a gun in the first place.

Agreed. And even more than that. This is another example of partisan disingenuousness. Question answered. Picture provided. Time wasted. The rest is just stupidity.

Pathetic is the word for something.. this spin.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Sail, what's truly pathetic is how some people think the president should have ever 'needed' to fire a gun in the first place.

I'm sure the Liberal's at The New Republic Magazine didn't expect that his answer was going to be yes and he skeet shoots all the time. They were the ones that asked him in the first place.

Wiki on The New Republic Magazine:

Domestically, TNR as of 2011 supports a largely modern liberal stance on fiscal and social issues,[2] according to editor Franklin Foer, who stated that it "invented the modern usage of the term 'liberal', and it's one of our historical legacies and obligations to be involved in the ongoing debate over what exactly liberalism means and stands for."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Republic

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Background checks on his speeches? Why? Who cares whether he has fired a gun or not?

Sushi,

Are you serious that President Obama's speeches shouldn't be checked when he makes a claim to see it's true or not?

He made the claim and it took most folks back including Liberal's and they checked into it. The Whitehouse originally said they had no photo's of the President's previously undisclosed passion for his own personal gun grabbing and gun blasting at Camp David. Jon Stewart the defacto Dean of Liberal Snark and the Liberal Cultural Icon was not convinced and the whitehouse knew that it now had a real problem. Only the heathens at Fox news and the Conservative news sites dare to imply that President is less then 100 percent pure and honest andf they can be ignored. But Jon Stewart?,,,,Yikes, Release the photo!!!!

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Just a minor technical thing on this article that I didn't address and should have in my first post.

There really is no such thing as a skeet "rifle" as the article calls it. You actually shoot skeet with a shotgun.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Sail - "Sushi, Are you serious that President Obama's speeches shouldn't be checked when he makes a claim to see it's true or not?"

Normally I would but for something as ridiculously trivial and unimportant as whether or not your president has fired a gun, I'm willing to give it a pass.

This issue is a total waste of time, and every line after line you write about it only underlines that point.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

As a skeet shooter for more than four decades, I can tell you the angle of the gun's barrel (horizontal) in the photo is wrong.

"Uh, Mr. President, you are supposed to wait for the clay pigeon to leave the thrower before you shoot. Are you ok, Agent Smith?"

RR

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Heh.

Y'see this is what I love about US President Barrack Hussein Obama and the sanity here at the centre of the political spectrum.

Radical left in a tizz?

Check.

Extreme right foaming at the mouth?

Check.

Both extremities either think he's either a raging Marxist or a huge disappointment to their bleeding-heart cause - yet President Obama and his team play them, and Sailwind's hated conspiracy media, for the fools they all are.

As we type there is a 5 year old on his fifth day of being held hostage by a gun nut in Alabama after gunning down a school bus driver - if that and all the other daily gun related carnage we hear from the US can't change the minds of people that there needs to be serious reform on the issue of gun ownership then you're dealing with fools and there is simply no point in discussing it....

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I dont think the President was trying to be deceptive, he was just being a politician. Trying to please everyone all the time. Ask a politician a question, and of course they will twist themselves into knots trying to answer positively. Plus, exaggeration is not unknown in pols of all kinds...

IMHO, he was desperate not to be seen as what he is, a big city liberal with little/no experience with firearms.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Normally I would but for something as ridiculously trivial and unimportant as whether or not your president has fired a gun, I'm willing to give it a pass.

I would think since gun control is now a huge priority with him on a personal level that being ask a question whether he's shot a firearm isn't something that could or would be be consider an off the wall question or trivial at all. I do understand your not to happy that he's shooting a shot gun as that gives you hives or something but he did and now "we gots a photos that proves its"...

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Any and all gun permit holders should be immediately disqualified from participating in any debate about gun control due to the very fact that because they have a gun permit, they will be automatically biased against gun control.

No questions. 

0 ( +1 / -1 )

LOL, it’s obvious just from reading the title that even the writer of the article treats the whole “Obama-shooting-a-gun” as a joke.

The fact that Obama wasted precious time to get someone to actually bother taking this shot speaks loudly of the inane “need” of the gun-toting Right who mask their insecurities by getting off on shooting stuff.

It should be OBVIOUS that the president isn’t into shooting – there’s no need to scan his past speeches to work that one out.

The fact that:

1/ Anyone did, and 2/ Anyone even thinks the president’s gun-totin’ history makes the slightest bit of difference to anything is just completely ridiculous.

He’s obviously just putting on a show to placate the NRA-types.

Vast – “I don’t think the President was trying to be deceptive, he was just being a politician. Trying to please everyone all the time.”

First time I’ve ever agreed with you.

Vast – “IMHO, he was desperate not to be seen as what he is, a big city liberal with little/no experience with firearms.”

LOL, the very sad fact that you appear to think your president “needs” “experience with firearms” pretty much says it all, IMO.

Sail – “I do understand your not to happy that he's shooting a shot gun as that gives you hives..”

Wow, how did you guess. You’re right. I do get “hives or something” because I’m “not to happy” that president Barack Obama is “shooting a shot gun”.

Pure genius. How do you do it every time….

And then we have RomeoR – “As a skeet shooter for more than four decades,..”

ROFL!! Everyone knows real men don’t do skeet shooting, ha ha ha. 

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Obama: "we do skeet shooting all the time"

Sushi: "real men don't do skeet shooting"

Ha ha ha!

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Thanks for the brief agreement, SS.

I didn't mean anything by saying the Pres. has no experience with firearms. I don't think he needs to in order to discuss how best to regulate them. Any more than a Pres. needs to be a doctor to discuss health care, or an astronaut to discuss NASA, or a crime victim to discuss crime.

He is what he is. That may influence his views, but doesn't make them invalid.

I look at this "scandal" the same way I would look at a President going to a country fair and eating chili, and declaring "this is better than the chili I make at home!". Harmless and patronizing, but mostly harmless.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Vast - "I look at this "scandal" the same way I would look at a President going to a country fair and eating chili, and declaring "this is better than the chili I make at home!". Harmless and patronizing, but mostly harmless."

Totally agree.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Entertaining as usual, the conspiracy posts across the web are roiling. So what? Silly political maneuvering. What's crazy is there's actually a "birther-skeet" contingent now: really? C'mon...

One thing a lot of folks do is use the term "skeet" for all shotgun sports, when in fact, Skeet, Trap and Sporting Clays are all very different disciplines. Trap and Skeet will engage almost exclusively high and low shots, but Sporting Clays can have fairly level tracking shots. Background doesn't particularly indicate a Sporting Clays station, but whatever.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

So, The White House says this photo was "taken" on Aug. 4 during Obama's birthday trip to Camp David. So, why are they waiting until now to post it?

Also, he was golfing with friends for six hours that day according to the official press reports. That means this photo would have been "taken" between 4-6 p.m; however, the light is high over the Obama's left shoulder and is cloud-shaded (although it was a clear day at Camp David on Aug. 4 according to the NOAA).

Memo to the White House honchos: Let your photoshop folks know to at least simulate the correct lighting and have someone keep track of Obama's activities on the days you say he's doing things in your attempt to bamboozle people.

RR

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Seems like most Americans are gun experts! Would be better is they were experts at peace.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

It should be OBVIOUS that the president isn’t into shooting – there’s no need to scan his past speeches to work that one out.

Then he's not actually being very truthful at all with his..... Obama said “yes” when asked if he has ever fired a gun. He said “we do skeet shooting all the time,”........Answer he gave during the interview.

I don't know Sushi,, it would seem that you want the President to be pretty honest and forthright not have to embellish things when asked a question.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Heh, once again, Obama proves to be so thin skinned. Instead of just letting the "we do skeet shooting all the time" statement die, as his lapdogs in the MSM would allow it to, he has to release a photo proving he is a macho man. We all know better. We've seen pictures of him throwing a baseball, watching a judo match on the White House lawn and riding a girl's mountain bike with his helmet on backward. This photo changes nothing established by the three other photos.

RR

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Any and all gun permit holders should be immediately disqualified from participating in any debate about gun control due to the very fact that because they have a gun permit, they will be automatically biased against gun control.

No questions.

Sushi,

Your seriously proposing locking the people out that would be most affective by gun control laws if passed out of the debate????????

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Your seriously proposing locking the people out that would be most affective(sic) by gun control laws if passed out of the debate????????

The people most affected would surely be the ones who don't get shot as a result of better gun laws?

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The people most affected would surely be the ones who don't get shot as a result of better gun laws?

The people most affected are the ones who would be tasked with enforcing better gun laws. That would be generally law enforcement and by Sushi's logic they would be banned from the gun control debate because law enforcement officers have to have a legal gun permit to carry a weapon.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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