This report details the knots which Barack Obama has tied himself up in on the gun issue. He now disavows a prior comment indicating he supported th D.C. Gun ban, arguing he really meant to avoid opining altogether.

This is both accurate (he generally tried to double talk his way through any questioning as he did in the Philadelphia debate) and intensely dishonest. Obama says he believes the Second Amendment confers an individual right, but that reasonable restictions should be permitted. But by what theory is a total ban a reasonable restriction? It is just this sort of flim-flamery which is frustrating, no doubt, both to supporters and opponents. Was he–a supposed Constitutional scholar–not capable previously of explaining his views? Hillary Clinton must be fuming to think she was the one who got the bad reputation for craven opportunism and opaqueness.