Obama;
No Gun Shops Within Five Miles of Schools; Porn Shops Okay
I'm going to enjoy writing about a general election campaign against Barack Obama.
As Corner contributor Dave Kopel and David Bernstein note, Barack Obama
proposed a few years ago a federal law against licensed firearms dealers operating within five miles of a school or park. As Kopel notes, "Every town I've ever visited which has more than a few dozen inhabitants has either a school or a park. Hypothesizing that the ban would apply to city parks (e.g., Central Park in New York City) but not to National Parks, pick a geographical region, and describe where a licensed firearms dealer could operate. Or pick a geographic point (e.g, Houston)and identify how far a peson would have to drive in order to get to the closest point where a gun store could legally be located. Extra credit for illustrative maps."
As the commenters noted,
this would effectively ban gun shops from most of the country, and just about every city.
However, Obama appears to find another kind of establishment to be perfectly fine operating near your children's school:
Obama was also the sole present vote on a bill that easily passed the Senate that would require teaching respect for others in schools. He also voted present on a measure to prohibit sex-related shops from opening near schools or places of worship, which ultimately did not pass the Senate.
In both of those cases, his campaign said, he was trying to avoid mandates on local authorities.
The bill did not get the required three-fifths majority, so it did not in fact pass. (Mr. Obama voted “present” on the measure.)
Why on God's green earth does Barack Obama object to mandates on local authorities for porn shops but not for gun stores? Or conversely, why does he feel it's necessary to keep gun stores five miles from a school, but no limit on porn shops?
