Hope and change. Those are the two catchphrases that Sen. Barack Obama used to power his campaign to a decisive victory yesterday in his successful bid to become the next president of the United States.

During the long campaign, Sen. Obama made numerous promises and pronouncements to the crowds he addressed across the country, touching on every topic imaginable—the economy, the war, health care, climate change, energy policy and so on—down to, and including, the Second Amendment.

The promises he made on this subject are not ambiguous. He says he’ll recognize and support the Second Amendment as an individual right. He says we have no reason to be fearful that an Obama administration will seek to take away our guns or curb our freedoms. He spent a lot of time preaching this message to the “bitter clingers,” trying to earn trust, or at least allay suspicion.

Gun sales are up in Florida. Another report here. The bad economy and the prospect of a President Obama are the stated causes. (Via Drudge.)

—John Snow

This interesting article in the Washington Post highlights the forces driving the boost in firearms sales this year. According to the story, sales of firearms and ammunition are up 8 to 10 percent in 2008 compared to 2007.

The biggest factor cited by the buyers and gun store owners is, not surprisingly, the presidential election and the worry that an Obama administration will restrict gun rights through bans and other means. The poor condition of the economy also has an effect.

This is a double-barrel vote of no confidence for Obama from sportsmen. Not only are our gun rights at risk, but we don’t think Obama’s economic prescriptions are going to cure our economic woes either.

We’re voting with our wallets before we head to the polls—sadly it seems our prediction is that we’re going to be the losers.

—John Snow

The following is a guest blog by Derek Reeves, who works in a gun shop in Connecticut:

Working within the gun industry I am dismayed by the divisional attitudes among people who own firearms for whatever purpose that suits them. I have repeatedly heard gun owners disparage other aspects of gun possession. Some hunters feel that people should not own military style weapons, some target shooters feel that civilians should not have .50 BMG rifles, some who own guns for self defense feel that people should not hunt. So when one element comes under fire the solidarity needed to defeat it is not there. Whether you agree or disagree with my observation we, as gun owners, need to start realizing the stark, naked truth. We are all in the same boat and that boat is taking on water.

If his goal is to reassure gun owners that he isn’t interested in quashing our Second Amendment rights, I don’t think this statement is going to help much:

“Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress,’’ Obama said. “This can’t be the reason not to vote for me.”

Seems like pretty cold comfort to think that what’s preventing President Obama from snagging our guns is a lack of votes in the Democratic House and Democratic Senate led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

As an aside, I like the comment from this person to the post:

“Of course he won’t. It would be kind of hard to since we’re all ‘clinging’ to them.”

Got that right.

—John Snow

Update: The NRA-ILA takes Joe Biden to the woodshed for his anti-gun record.

I'm not sure it completely qualifies someone for the vice presidency of the United States, but Fred Thompson just noted, while singing the praises of Sarah Palin, that she is certainly the only person on either ticket who knows how to "properly field dress a moose."

No doubt.

—John Snow

Looking for a quick recap of where the candidates for president and vice president stand on the topic of gun rights?

This page here gives a synopsis (including links to Outdoor Life’s exclusive interview with John McCain) on the issues.

—John Snow

Who is Sarah Palin, the surprise pick for John McCain’s running mate? Well beyond the obvious—that she is a political newcomer who managed to become governor of Alaska—not much is known about the 44-year-old Republican.

Sportsmen and gun owners will be interested to know that she is a lifelong NRA member and lists “hunting” as her number-one area of interest on the “Sarah Palin For Governor” web site.

—John Snow

Update: The unauthorized version of McCain's phone call. (H/T: Glenn)

In his acceptance speech last night Barack Obama took a “tough love” approach on the culturally divisive issues in the United States:

“America, our work will not be easy. The challenges we face require tough choices. And Democrats, as well as Republicans, will need to cast off the worn-out ideas and politics of the past.”

From Obama’s perspective one of those challenges is to figure out how to pay lip service to the Second Amendment while setting the stage for future legislation that will curb those rights. Here’s what he said:

“The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than they are for those plagued by gang violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.”

This is a rhetorical tactic he’s adopted before. To borrow a phrase from John Edward’s failed bid for the Democratic nomination, it is a “two Americas” approach to looking at our constitutional rights. That somehow what qualifies for a Second Amendment right in the urban areas of the United States does not have to be the equivalent of the rights that people in rural America enjoy.

To drive home his point he picks on two groups: hunters in Ohio and Cleveland gang members. The hunters of Ohio, according to Obama, inhabit a different reality than their city-dwelling cousins and should be prepared to face the consequences of the “tough choices” that America needs to face to curb gun violence. So suck it up Bubba.

Meanwhile, you couldn’t blame the gang members in Cleveland if they were left scratching their heads by Obama’s words last night, too. AK-47s? They must not have got that memo. A quick Goggle search doesn’t reveal evidence of a “plague” of gun violence in Cleveland, let alone a plague in the form of AK-wielding Crips and Bloods. (This is hardly surprising as criminals rarely use military-style semi-autos when committing crimes and the criminal use honest-to-goodness full-auto battle rifles is almost unheard of. You’re more likely to choke to death on a gerbil than get hosed with an AK-47 in Cleveland.)

So why does Obama take this approach? This is the tortured logic he needs to employ to square his statements that the Second Amendment conveys an individual right with his solidly anti-gun legislative record. The Assault Weapons Ban? A great thing, according to Obama. He supported it. Chicago’s gun laws that keep ordinary citizens from owning handguns while greasing the skids for the powerful and connected to get permits? No problem. Obama was fine with that setup too. Washington D.C.’s total ban on gun ownership? That’s somehow constitutional as well, according to Obama.

It isn’t the hunters of Ohio that need the reality check. It is the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States.

—John Snow

All you southern California do-it-yourselfers prepare to rid your shops of bolts, nuts and grease rags. And that pop-bottle top that blew out of your trash just might choke the last remaining California condor.

The recovery of the endangered condor soared into the absurd this week with a report from the American Ornithologist's Union that once again says hunters¹ lead ammunition is poisoning the graceful scavengers.

The report provides new glimpses of the towering futility of the recovery effort. According to the Los Angeles Times condors can be considered "little more than outdoor zoo populations" thanks to the intensity of human intervention. They are being sustained artificially by government "feeding stations" that feature lead-free carcasses, by surgical removal of bolts, nuts, rags and other debris the majestic birds pick up in their long flights over southern California and the American Southwest. Chicks are vaccinated against West Nile disease.

Yet the report once again fingers hunters as a culprit in the recovery bottleneck, citing the ingestion of lead from big-game carcasses as a principle cause of mortality.

This even though the report goes on to mention that reintroduced condors are busy raiding trash dumps and being electrocuted by power poles. I'll await the recommendation that will bury all powerlines in California and criminalize trash generation.

The ornithologists recommend that California's ban on lead hunting bullets be adopted by neighboring states. And in order to boost compliance the group urges manufacturers and retailers to increase the availability of non-lead ammunition in the region. The reason? Because poachers kill large numbers of big-game animals and are "unlikely to comply" with lead-free rules "as long as lead bullets are easily purchased."

Great idea. Poachers are as likely to buy copper bullets as Southern Californians are to stop producing trash.

- Andrew McKean