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CNN has been hyping their “Guns in America” town hall special – scheduled for 8pm EST tonight – like a time share salesman at a retirement party. And why not? CNN has been chasing Fox’s tail for years. The President’s appearance on [what some call] the Communist News Network, formerly the Clinton News Network] will give CNN K-Street cred and a big fat ratings/earnings boost. Or will it? I have a sneaking suspicion . . .

that a large part of the gun rights crowd will give it a pass, in a not-entirely-misguided-attempt to keep their blood pressure within safe limits (a genuine concern for OFWGs). Beyond that, a large number of non-guncentric Americans suffer the same distressing Obama-triggered stimulus/response pattern. As in Obama -> this guy is the president? -> we’re so screwed.

Obviously, there are plenty Obama supporters who wouldn’t dare miss the President’s star turn on CNN – in the same sense that Boris Badenov wouldn’t dare miss his little chats with Fearless Leader. But here’s the dirty little secret about all this Obama “Guns in America” stuff: the vast majority of Americans are simply not interested in the subject. As cns.com reported ahead of the President’s executive order/tearjerker . . .

A newly released Gallup Poll shows that “guns/gun control” ranked near the bottom of Americans’ most pressing concerns in 2015. In fact, guns/gun control ranked 19th out of 23 top problems facing the country last year.

Gallup poll

According to Gallup, only one percent of respondents mentioned guns/gun control as a concern for most of the months in 2015, although mentions spiked to 7 percent in October and December following mass shootings in those months that dominated the news. (The overall average for the year was 2 percent.)

Americans were most likely to mention some aspect of the federal government in 2015 when asked to name the country’s top problem.

So the feds aren’t the answer to America’s problems, they are the problem. Who saw that one coming? And look! There’s immigration at the top of the pile. Quick! Someone tell Donald Trump!

To paraphrase the Gyrocopter Pilot in The Road Warrior, a quick fella might think “Guns In America” was designed to distract attention away from the Obama administration’s domestic and foreign policy failures. I’d have to pin his head to the panel. You know; to make him watch this anti-gun agitprop.

Fortunately, TTAG will be live-blogging the event and providing in-depth analysis, although the actual depth of the post-show analysis may have more to do with a bottle of Colonel E.H. Taylor’s Single Barrel Bourbon whiskey than anything pithy the Prez says. More on that later. Or moron that later. Your choice. Anyway, are you gonna watch? Any ideas for a drinking game? Note: taking a shot every time Mr. Oabam says “common sense” does not constitute responsible drinking. Just sayin’ . . .

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166 COMMENTS

  1. Sure, I need a good laugh.
    My expectations are low however. I’m sure this will be carefully scripted and the questioners pre-chosen.

    • I want to see him break out the fake tears on Que like he did the other day…putin, china and isis all have to be cracking up…

  5. No, I’m not going to watch. I rather set my groin on fire and try to put out the flames with an ice pick.

    • Yep. That about sums it up for me.
      Why give legitimacy to an obvious farce? This is a propaganda trap, plain and simple. They want to roast the effigy of the modern gun owner at the stake, and somehow think we would voluntarily participate in something like that.

      I think one of our greatest advantages in this fight, is that they *really do believe* we’re that stupid. I’ll never complain about being underestimated by someone who seeks to do me harm.

    • I’d watch just to listen for any new tactics the antis might reveal, to get my heart rate up, and to exercise my freedom of speech at the TV and anyone else willing to listen.

      But…what’s CNN?

    • Ain’t that the truth. I’ve been putting off cleaning a couple AR’s after heavy suppressor use this last weekend. So dirty I don’t want to clean them dirty. Now I have the time and the excuse (to clean them).

      Thank you, Obummer.

  7. I’m watching the rest of last season’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Screw this grandstanding special!

  8. In the words of William Faulkner, “I’d rather catch my wife in congress with the stable hand.”

    • You would send your wife to Congress? You monster.

      It is nice if you to consider providing an assistant for her while she’s there, though.

    • Maybe TTAG could do a monthly whiskey review… 🙂 Actually years ago I forget what gun magazine I picked up at the supermarket but a whiskey article in there actually jump started my whiskey passion/addiction…

      • It (almost) makes me sad I gave up drinking. There are so many really nice small batch bourbons out there. Wonderful smelling, delightfully tasting selections.

        Then I sip one and my stomach rebels. Damn good thing it does, too. Nice reminder why I quit.

        • Seems as I’ve gotten into my 30s whiskey is better on my stomach than beer… Might have something to do with my wife being gluten free and thus our household most of the time as well so maybe beer just shocks my system when I drink 3+… 🙁

  12. And I thought the Kardashians was the lowest intellect show to air. Congratulations CNN, you’re going to set a new low bar.

  13. It’s times like this when I really do NOT miss having a TV (haven’t had one for about 30 years now)

    • An excellent choice. We’re going on year 4 without a TV.
      Modern has become at best a childish waste of precious time that could be better spent. At worst it is a tool of humanist indoctrination aimed squarely at the minds of the unquestioning masses.

      TV is the fence that keep the sheeple subdued and blissfully unaware of the line leading to the slaughterhouse.

      • “TV is the fence that keep the sheeple subdued and blissfully unaware of the line leading to the slaughterhouse.”

        Indeed.

        No TV here either.

    • I have 2 TVs and a projector. On the same wall. What I don’t have is cable or broadcast television service (cut off for so many years I’ve now lost track). That setup is for gaming and movies.

      • there ya’ go. We maintained one for awhile so I could watch the Olympics sometime in the 80s, and things like Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates on VHS at Christmas. Now we watch the occasional DVD on the PC.

  14. Here’s the headline if the ratings are anywhere north of Big Bang Theory.

    Americans Show Renewed Interest in Gun Control.

  16. No real interest in watching a carefully orchestrated propaganda festival with pre-screened questions. Let me summarize it for busy people: Guns bad, mkay?

    This is just a distraction from all the other actual important stuff going on in the world. Why couldn’t the President interrupt his golf schedule and devote a town hall for unemployment, taxes, or the regulations killing the middle class?

  17. I’m planning to commemorate the event by going to the range and trying out my new Ruger Mark III Competition, I picked up yesterday.

  19. Nope! – would watch Rosanne Barr before I watched the enemy of the state speak at this dog & pony show.

  20. It will like a train wreck, you just can’t look away. Will have it on but like his announcement earlier, watched for a while then read Hangun reviews. Picking up Ruger LCR 22lr later today, dry firing a good way to spend the time

    • I hope you read this before tonight. Do not dry fire a rimfire. If there s no rim there the firing pin will hit the hard cylinder and can harm it. Please use snap caps or at least some plastic wall anchors.

        • Ruger says safe to dry fire, but spend some time on the ruger forum more than a few complaints about broken firing pins and transfer bars.

        • “firing pin will hit the hard cylinder and can harm it”

          Well, you don’t need to rotate the brass to keep the pin from hitting the cylinder, so something here doesn’t add up. Still, snap caps are cheap.

        • If you keep striking the brass in the same exact spot you wear it down to the point where the brass rim no longer cushions the blow and thd strikes will be almost as bad as hitting the cylinder. I wish DG was reading this, he would either explain it better or tell me I was nuts.

  22. Even if you just took one shot with the phrases “Common sense solutions, other civilized nations, gun violence epidemic,” double shot for “if it saves the life of one child”
    And a round for everyone with “I respect the Second Amendment, but…”

    You’d be hammered and asleep in the first ten minutes.

  25. If I have time to watch it on my laptop, sure. But I doubt anything good can come of it. I really want to hear the hacks that CNN has chosen as their random callers.

  26. Not just no.
    Not just Hell No.
    But F*CK NO!

    But I will read the report from TTAG.
    And you should mix some water shots in there otherwise that’s gonna be a bitch of a hangover….

  27. I would rather gather a pro-gun crowd outside the event chanting “SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED! SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED!”

  29. If there was a remote chance that something original was going to be presented . . . maybe. But no, there is more of a chance of me spontaneously growing a functioning vagina than there is of CNN presenting anything other than the same tired arguments that encourage more control and oversight by an untrustworthy government.

    • I just bought a SA XDM compact .45, I think the Shield may get relegated to back up gun. Those XDM triggers are just so much nicer than the Shield, plus 9 rounds of .45 ACP is sweet.

  34. Nope, I threw up last week during the EO idiocy so I’d rather not do that again. Though there are some great bourbon recommendations in the comments.

  35. Actually, one should set up a couple of targets and play “gunshot bingo” for this particular speech.

    I envision a large bingo board target with appropriate key words.

    However, this speech will more than likely be buzzword central, hence the need for more than one target.

    • You are pulling my chain. Having a loaded gun in my hand, in front of my 70″ HDTV, while that crap is on? I don’t think so.

  36. Planning on watching. Know your enemy and all that.

    I also want to see if GOA gets moderated into a one sided oblivion or get a chance to make their case. Worse came to worse a “diva moment” where they walk out would be fine.

    I also think that since Hillary is running largely on this platform it’s an attempt to try and throw weight behind it.

    • ^^^This.
      “Hillary is tough on guns – she’s pledged to finish what President Obama started”
      I can hear the radio ads now..

  37. We don’t get CNN. If this was on Netflix, and tonight wasn’t a date night, I might have stumbled on it.

  38. This is nothing more than CNN gathering a mob to throw tomatoes at an effigy of gun owners while they roast it on a stake in the town square and call it “Family entertainment”.

  39. Based on what I saw last night when Don Lemon and some guy from ThinkProgress ganged up on a conservative that was supposed to represent the pro gun rights position, I think I’ll just go to the range tonight and practice. I could be persuaded to tune in if I knew that some of the truly legitimate gun rights scholars, Vokohl, Kopel, etc. were representing the pro gun rights position but I imagine it will be a bunch of Fudd’s like that Mark Carman that made that Youtube video and then met with Obama.

  43. Nope. I’ll be down at the local indoor range for the monthly rimfire challenge. Just like a bowling league but I get to wear my own shoes.

  45. I bought some ammo today at Cabela’s. I may just sit around staring at it. That would be more entertaining to me than watching CNN.

  46. Why should we both waste time watching the Commie News Network propaganda? You go ahead and report on it. I’ll read it then.

  47. I live 1 mile from GMU and will drop by to see if anyone is protesting. If its too quiet I’ll probably head to the range to test out one of the guns I bought over the weekend.

    I wasn’t even in the market for anything new but figured I’d better buy now before Obama does something really stupid.

  48. I have no more desire to be lied to by that malignantly narcissistic sociopath than I do to watch a mentally ill homeless man lick a restaurant window.

  49. In response to the ludicrous question above, I shall borrow from the “valley girls”………AS IF.

  51. Absolutely yes. And recording it too. This should prove to be a great training video for my kids on why it’s so important to vote, conservative.

    • Important to vote “conservative”? Hell, start by voting VERTEBRATE.
      This “president” reminds me of the retard Sultan of Morocco in “The Wind and the Lion”, manipulated by others and spending his days playing bicycle polo and shooting a Maxim gun at his flunkies and foreign diplomats.

  52. I believe as someone said, know our enemies. I will watch, and i hope and pray that our pro-gun side is represented well. I am making my children watch too, so they can witness how nasty and wrong our government can be. They are our future leaders. Its important for them to see.

  53. I’m pretty sure I’ll be busy. Shopping for a new gun or trolling for .22LR or something. Anything but watching Barry (Crocodile tears) Sotero. I don’t have subscription TV, so don’t get CNN anyway.

  55. “…President’s executive order/tearjerker…”

    Alligator tears…? More likely Obama just had a triple bogey on the back nine.

    Obviously this clown-in-chief will resort to any tactic to persuade public opinion. No wonder he spends so much time carousing with the Hollywood crowd…he’s trying to learn their trade. Apparently he’s had some success with that effort.

    I’m am waiting for Obama to stand on his ears and spit out nickels as his next trick.

    He’s an angry man. He hates the gun industry and gun owners more than the homegrown vicious perpetrators of violence in our cities, or even ISIS.

  57. I have seen firearms advertising on the fox news channel. I have not seen this on CNN. Nor have I seen it on MSNBC.
    I will not watch this anti- liberty propaganda.

  58. Sure, I need something on in the background when I pull the lever on my progressive loading press.

    -D

  60. I have not listened to the lies of the sociopath-in-chief since his 2012. Instead I will be cleaning some of my “black scary rifles with the thingy that goes up.” Might also purchase a few more cases of boolits, just because I can, so I can hit the range this weekend. 😀

    Much better use of my money & time.

  62. Nope. My Hamster is running a 5K in his little wheel this evening and asked me to time him with a stopwatch, sounds much more interesting than listening to Obama lie and pretend to wipe tears from his eyes.

  64. I’m guessing RF will watch it and distill the relevant bits down for us. No need to give CNN more ratings than they deserve.

  66. It sounds less enjoyable than a self-administered colonoscopy… so nope.

    Besides it would probably raise my blood pressure to the point blood would squirt out of my eyes.

  68. This morning I pretended to watch this circus show.
    I took a big dump and out pooped a piece of brown turd which I addressed as Mr. President.
    I then flushed it down the drain. Just like the ratings of CNN.
    F this moose slime turd. I have had enough of him.
    My only hope is that soon someone will show him just what gun control really means.

    • Now that there is some funny stuff. If “it” has nuts or corn in it placed appropriately to look like his nappy head the i can piss on it before sending to sewer.

  69. I’ll only watch if we can get a pool started on how long it takes for Barry to start crying again. What are your bets on when the tears flow? 5 minutes? 18 Minutes?

  70. Is Barack gonna cry again?
    If he does, tape it for me.

    I have a previous engagement with my reloading press.

  74. Absolutely not. Although I’m thinking about setting my ex husband’s groin on fire and…..nah. 😉

  76. Here’s a drinking game for you.
    Take a shot every time he says “I”, or “Me” or “My”.

    • You and Fred (above) both want a lot of folks to die of alcohol poisoning, eh?

      What, you think you are in our wills as beneficiaries for .22 ammo or something?

  77. I DON”T WANT TO HELP BOLSTER VIEWERSHIP RATINGS…
    to the farce. A transcript or cliff notes will give me an idea of what was rancid crap was spewed

  78. I’ll at night I cleaned and oiled my two Mosins. I take all of my milsurp rifles apart at least yearly to oil them and keep the rust away. I think tonight I need to clean the gas piston for my SCAR 16s. It gets filthy!

  79. Look, I’m all for a real, adult conversation on guns. One that involves a real, respectful exchange of ideas from both sides. I’m even idealistic, foolish or naive enough to still think that such conversations are possible. I’ve actually participated in a few with coworkers (who happen to be engineers who are willing to suspend emotions and prejudices for long enough to contemplate stuff logically).

    However, I left CNN because of their idiot British anti-gun zealot who has since been canned, and I have yet to see any evidence that they’ve become any more informed or less bigoted about firearms since then. Moreover, Obama’s position on guns is pretty clear and pretty clearly incompatible with mine. I don’t see any reason to feed the CNN troll or tune in to listen to the President condescend to me.

    Thanks in advance, TTAG, for taking notes so I don’t have to be there.

  80. Why would i listen to that jackhole flap his lips. The last time he even promised anything was that I could keep my health insurance period. This guys sucks!

  82. Thankfully my blood pressure is normal. I’d like to keep it that way. This is little different than the guns in america BS on PBS. I may tune in for a few but no longer as Bury Soetoro tends make me throw up in my mouth. Just saw IT on the evening snooze and I had to suppress the urge to hurl…watch and scream at your own risk.

  83. “… Note: taking a shot every time Mr. Oabam says “common sense” does not constitute responsible drinking. Just sayin’ . . .”

    It does constitute response drinking though.

    Which I’m all in favor of.

  85. No. I don’t drink any longer, and the only way I could make it through that much bullsh*t without putting a boot through my flat panel is if I made a drinking game out of it.

    Plus, I don’t think they make any liquor at a high enough proof to make a worthwhile drinking game of it.

  86. I am gross and perverted
    Im obsessed n deranged
    I have existed for years
    But very little had changed
    I am the tool of the government
    And industry too
    For I am destined to rule
    And regulate you

    I may be vile and pernicious
    But you can’t look away
    I make you think Im delicious
    With the stuff that I say
    I am the best you can get
    Have you guessed me yet?
    I am the slime oozin out
    From your tv set

    You will obey me while I lead you
    And eat the garbage that I feed you
    Until the day that we don’t need you
    Don’t got for help…no one will heed you
    Your mind is totally controlled
    It has been stuffed into my mold
    And you will do as you are told
    Until the rights to you are sold

    That’s right, folks..
    Don’t touch that dial

    Well, I am the slime from your video
    Oozin along on your livinroom floor

    I am the slime from your video
    Cant stop the slime, people, lookit me go

  90. I was going to dvr it but I decided I don’t feel like yelling obscenities at my tv tonight. What new fallacies can they bring up really? Just a bunch of antis in a jerk circle.

  91. Also, I’m sure CNN’s ratings will go up tonight. The network is on life support as it is, so they need this.

  92. Nope. I will look forward to your reports, Robert.
    A side note, Libs think abortion is OK. However, suicide is not OK, based on their continuing to include suicides in “gun violence” numbers. Odd how that works. We must prevent suicide, but must allow abortion. While I have no personal opinion I care to share here on either, their hypocrisy should be pointed out.
    Grumpier than usual.

  95. The old saying from The Godfather, “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” would make watching the CNN/Obama anti-gun dis-infomercial, a civic, patriotic duty. Come to think of it, why isn’t TTAG holding a live blog on what is sure to be Obama’s maximum effort of anti-gun brainwashing? Dear Lawyer will make his case. A Harvard educated, empty suit lawyer will legally justify running roughshod over the 2nd amendment. That’s must see TV.

  96. Yeah, I’m home and cooked dinner already (thawed out some Christmas tamales).
    I’m curious to see how many audience plants will be asking questions.

    Planning to make a another margarita or 3 to help me handle it though.

  97. I’ll DVR. I have discovered in the past that 10 seconds of watching that jerk leads to my screaming for several minutes, I need to be able to stop/rewind so that an hour lasts for 6. Possibly spread over several days.

  98. CNN is already propagandizing even before the special airs. The results of a poll they just released are:

    51% of Republicans want more gun control
    70% of Americans overall want more gun control

    CNN got those results by asking questions like:

    3. As you may know, this week Barack Obama announced several executive orders that change the nation’s gun laws so that background checks are required for more gun purchases online and at gun shows, and which make it easier for the FBI to complete background checks efficiently. Overall, do you favor or oppose these changes?

    http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/07/politics/obama-guns-executive-action-poll-results/index.html

  99. 知彼知己，百戰不殆；不知彼而知己，一勝一負；不知彼，不知己，每戰必殆
    It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles.

  101. Personally, I thought it was very interesting and was pleasantly surprised by Anderson Cooper’s questioning. He certainly didn’t let the President get away with some of his party lines. And the questions were staged but hey, they had some pro gun people up there. Better than I expected.

  102. Although I may disagree with the politics, I watched it (while reloading 223) to stay informed about how everything is being positioned. There were some decent questions, but not necessarily satisfactory answers. I think it is more valuable to hear the arguments and to know how respond to opposition than to stick my fingers in my ears, but that’s just me.

    I’m not happy about everything that is happening, but it affects an aspect of my life that I value and if something is to be done about, need to stay informed via multiple sources. There is always going to be “spin”, but at least I can hear it from the horse’s mouth and make my own opinions.

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