Obama: I’ve Never Owned a Gun

President Obama on Thursday revealed that he has “never owned a gun” and became visibly agitated when asked if his move this week to make buying guns more difficult was part of a larger effort to force owners to register weapons or restrict gun purchases.

“I’m sorry, but yes, it is fair to call it a conspiracy,” Obama said at a town hall hosted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who asked about a “conspiracy … because a lot of people really believe this deeply, that they just don’t — they just don’t trust you.”

“What are you saying?” Obama asked. “Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody’s guns away so that we can enforce martial law is a conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy. I would hope you would agree with that. Is that controversial?”

Cooper, who moderated a surprisingly balanced affair (for the left-leaning CNN), pressed. “Not everybody, but there’s certainly a lot of …”

Growing more angry, Obama said: “But a conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy! I would hope that you would agree with that.” Then he laughed off the notion. “Well, look, I mean, I’m only going to be here for another year. I don’t know — when — when would I have started on this enterprise, right?”

Obama, who has wanted to restrict access to guns since the day he took office in 2009, spent much of Thursday night explaining his new “executive actions” on gun purchases. While gun dealers and other experts say those actions will have little impact on buyers — or gun crimes, for that matter — others fear the moves are the beginning of a push to create a national gun registry and restrict sales to Americans.

The town hall took place not far from the headquarters of the National Rifle Association. Obama called out the gun group in front of a select, invitation-only audience that attended the one-hour affair, complete with commercials and sponsors.

“There’s a reason why the NRA is not here. They’re just down the street. And, since this is the main reason they exist, you’d think they’d be prepared to have a debate with … a president,” he said.  “They haven’t been to the White House for years … We have invited them repeatedly, but if you listen to the rhetoric, it is so over the top, and so overheated …”

Obama faced a few tough questions in what was mostly an hour-long infomercial for his new proposals.

Sheriff Paul Babeu, of Pinal County, Arizona, said the real problem was mental illness, not access to guns, drawing applause.

“American Sniper” widow Taya Kyle pointed out that the U.S. is at an all-time low murder rate in our country — and all-time high rate of gun ownership.

Kimberly Corbin, who raped in 2006 while a college student, said she wants a gun to protect her family and asked, “Why can’t your administration see that these restrictions that you’re putting to make it harder for me to own a gun?”

Obama said: “This is not a proposal to solve every problem. It is a modest way of us getting started on improving the prospects of young men and young women like you the same way we try to improve all the other aspects of our lives.”

The president made every attempt to feign impartiality, saying he understood that Americans want guns “for self-protection, for hunting, for sportsmanship.” He even told a story of campaigning out in the countryside in Iowa, in which Michelle told him that if she lived there, far from the neighbors or the police, even she would want a gun for self-defense.

There were embarrassing moments for Obama. He could not provide an answer as to why he praised Australian gun control confiscation. And the pretense of impartiality vanished completely when the president described the sides of the debate as “those who are concerned about violence and those who aren’t.” The comment is revealing about Obama’s true feelings about those who wish to protect their Second Amendment rights, with its insinuation that the NRA and its millions of members and supporters are indifferent to the deaths of innocent people merely because they reject the president’s executive actions.

Throughout the evening, Obama claimed that his executive measures won’t prevent people from exercising their Second Amendment rights, stressing that his actions merely expand federal licenses for certain gun sales and the subsequent federal background checks those licenses require their owners to run.

GOP presidential candidates panned the event.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said “the first impulse of the president of the United States and Hillary Clinton is to take more rights away from law-abiding citizens.”

Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson tweeted: “We need a president who will stop threatening legal gun owners, & start tackling the root causes of violent crime & terrorism in this county.”

Donald Trump, meanwhile, drew thunderous applause during a speech in Vermont when he called for the end of “gun-free zones.”

“I will get rid of gun-free zones on schools — you have to — and on military bases on my first day. It gets signed my first day.

“You know what a gun-free zone is to a sicko?” Trump asked. “That’s bait.”