Citizen disarmament advocates eating their own

Few things are more satisfying than seeing various elements of the gun ban crowd squabbling amongst themselves. This particular incidence of that started with Hillary Clinton criticizing Barack Obama for "flip-flopping" on the issue of gun legislation.

Speaking to reporters on a flight between California and Arizona, Hillary Clinton accused Barack Obama of flip-flopping on the issue of gun control.

Earlier today, Obama said he had "no intention of taking away folks' guns.”

But Obama has a history of supporting gun control measures. And the Clinton campaign pointed out a questionnaire from 1996 where Obama said he "supported banning the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns.”

Clinton said Obama has some explaining to do.

Back in December, Clinton also criticized Obama's history of anti-gun positions as being a weakness in terms of "electability"--a rather amusing criticism, considering the source.

Since then, Bryan Miller (executive director of Ceasefire NJ) has taken Clinton to task--not only for the hypocrisy of her "flip-flopping" accusations, but also for not being more vocally anti-gun herself.

But Clinton's bait and switch tactic should anger anyone hoping to elect a presidential candidate who might actually pursue a rational policy on guns. Clinton's attack is an obvious effort to frighten some with the false specter of gun confiscation under an Obama presidency, a prospect that is clearly not in the cards in this country, whoever is in office.

Clinton's attack is highly ironic, as well, both because she has changed positions on guns even more rapidly than Obama, and because she has one of the strongest gun violence prevention (GVP) records of any federal office holder. To wit: Clinton stated her support for national licensing and registration of all newly purchased handguns in a May 2000 meeting with newspaper publishers (http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/05/09/hrc.guns/index.html), but stated during a debate last month in Nevada that she opposed implementing a national gun licensing registry..." (http://cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?parm1=5&docID=news-000002655673).

Snowflakes in Hell, Days of Our Trailers, and Say Uncle all have some good commentary about Miller's criticism of Clinton. As all three of them point out, the Democratic candidates' (rather unconvincing) attempts to reassure gun owners about their intentions would seem to indicate that, Bryan Miller's cheerleading about the "demise of the gun culture" notwithstanding, gun rights advocates constitute a political bloc that even politicians like Clinton and Obama have to take seriously.

Miller isn't the only citizen disarmament advocate disappointed with Clinton, according to ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper:

In an email to me, Andy Pelosi of Gun Free Kids, writes, "quite frankly, there are many gun control advocates that find it distasteful that Clinton appears to be running to the right of Obama on guns."

Trouble in gun-free paradise?