Barack Obama, guns, hunting and you

I wasn't planning to tackle this subject, but FS Huntress has inspired me - as she often does - to weigh in.

As you've probably heard, there's been a rush of gun sales since Barack Obama was elected on Nov. 4. Click here to see CNN's take on it.

Now, I take my gun rights pretty seriously, but this phenomenon just makes me giggle, and heres' why:

First, Barack Obama can't ban guns all by himself when he takes the oath on Jan. 20. It doesn't work that way. Legislation takes FOREVER to get through Congress. Hell, even the recent bailouts took a few days, and that was when we were in serious danger of terrifying economic collapse.

Don't get me wrong - I'm super happy for the gun retailers. Good for the economy, too. But seriously, folks, at least take the time to purchase wisely.

And second ... well, my second point isn't really a laughing matter.

Obama's positions on guns and hunting aren't funny at all. His views betray an ignorance that terrifies me, because I don't want to be that seriously misunderstood by people who have the power to restrict my rights and privileges or tax the hell out of the products I use.

And I don't buy his explanation about expressing himself poorly with that comment about folks clinging to guns and religion out of bitterness - I've traveled in liberal circles enough to recognize that as an authentic statement, not a tongue-tangle.

I also know that I would not have had to watch my back on guns and hunting - at least not as much - with McCain in the White House.

But that's a moot point. Here's what matters now:

Hunters and gun owners voted for Obama.

No, really.

Obviously not all of them, and I'm sure not even close to a majority of them. But as "Ricochet" author and former NRA lobbyist Richard Feldman told me this summer, there are 10 million gun owners in America who identify themselves as "liberal." And according to a 2006 Responsive Management survey, 11 percent of hunters and anglers identify themselves as "liberal." (Click on that chart to see it in detail.)

If you need further evidence that hunters voted for Obama, check out Rednecks for Obama, whose motto was, "We hunt, fish, drink beer and support Barack Obama." (Click here if you missed the San Francisco Chronicle story on them.)

Why does this matter? Because those people can now go to Barack Obama and say, "I own guns. I hunt. And I voted for you. Please allow me to tell you why guns and hunting are important to me."

And if you're one of those people, I hope that's what you'll do. If there's one thing I learned in a decade of covering politics as a newspaper reporter and editor, it's that politicians listen to those who voted for them. That's why politicians never, ever mess with seniors, who vote religiously, and why they don't spend much time, on the whole, on age 18-24 issues because - with the exception of last week - youth are notoriously lazy about voting.

I'll go one step further, though, and say that even if you're not one of those people, perhaps you should write a letter to Obama too. After all, he is our president-elect, regardless of whether all of us voted for him.

When I was a kid, my grandparents were inveterate presidential letter-writers, bombarding Richard Nixon with advice probably on a weekly basis. I was so inspired by them that I wrote him a letter too, when I was seven years old. It was filled with advice like, "Make new jobs and make new parks and above all, never lie." Seriously, I said that. I was a kid - I didn't know that lying was a key issue in Watergate. I thought Watergate was a dam.

I still have a copy of that letter, and the polite - and likely bemused - thank-you note from an aide typed on a small sheet of onion-skin paper with the presidential return address on it.

I always wanted to keep writing my presidents. But I never could, because news people have to take this vow of political silence in order to maintain an image - many would say a facade - of objectivity.

But I think I will now. And I hope you will too. Here's the address of Obama's Washington Senate office: Sen. Barack Obama, 713 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510.

Remember: One sincere letter from a constituent is worth hundreds, if not thousands, of identical postcards or web-generated letters that read exactly the same.

And remember:

Yes we can ... own guns and use them, ideally at the target range and, God forbid we should need it, in self-defense.

Yes we can ... hunt ducks and deer and hogs and all variety of wild creatures to provide local, organic, hormone- and antibiotic-free food for our tables.

Yes we can ... tell our new president the real reasons we cling to this lifestyle, which are ... oh, I'll let you fill in that blank yourself.

© Holly A. Heyser 2008