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January 08, 2016 11:36 AM UTC

Obama Answers Local Pro-Gun Crime Victim With Respect

  • 22 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
President Barack Obama, left, speaks during a CNN televised town hall meeting hosted by Anderson Cooper, right, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016. Obama's proposals to tighten gun controls rules may not accomplish his goal of keeping guns out of the hands of would-be criminals and those who aren't legally allowed to buy a weapon. In short, that's because the conditions he is changing by executive action are murkier than he made them out to be. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama, left, speaks during a CNN televised town hall meeting hosted by Anderson Cooper, right, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Thursday, Jan. 7, 2016.

Last night, President Barack Obama held a televised town hall meeting at Virginia’s George Mason University to discuss his recent action to tighten up background checks on gun sales and better track disqualifying mental illness among prospective gun buyers. In the audience at yesterday’s town hall was a Colorado woman who was sexually assaulted at UNC in 2006. Kimberly Corban’s testimony in 2013 before the Colorado legislature against gun safety legislation resulted in controversy after remarks from Democratic Sen. Evie Hudak in response to another woman’s testimony on the same bill were perceived by some as insensitive.

Corban’s questioning of President Obama at yesterday’s town hall seems to have been highly anticipated by gun rights supporters, who immediately attacked the President after the exchange in a similar manner to the attacks on Sen. Hudak in 2013.

The problem is, nothing that could even be considered even remotely insensitive to Ms. Corban occurred yesterday. As the Washington Post reports:

Corban’s story did not exactly have a happy ending — or, at least, the ending is ever-evolving. Though her assailant is now serving 24 years to life in prison, she struggled with depression, PTSD and stress-related seizures. And, speaking about her experience, she came to realize how important it was for women to have access to guns to protect themselves.

Then, Thursday night on national television, she got to confront the man she thought wanted to take her guns away: President Obama.

“As a survivor of rape, and now a mother to two small children — you know, it seems like being able to purchase a firearm of my choosing, and being able to carry that wherever my — me and my family are — it seems like my basic responsibility as a parent at this point,” she told Obama during “Guns in America,” CNN’s town hall, after the president announced executive orders on gun control Tuesday.

“I have been unspeakably victimized once already, and I refuse to let that happen again to myself or my kids. So why can’t your administration see that these restrictions that you’re putting to make it harder for me to own a gun, or harder for me to take that where I need to be is actually just making my kids and I less safe?”

Turning to the CNN transcript of the event, here is Obama’s response to her question:

OBAMA: Well, Kimberly, first of all, obviously — you know, your story is horrific. The strength you’ve shown in telling your story and, you know, being here tonight is remarkable, and so — really proud of you for that.

I just want to repeat that there’s nothing that we’ve proposed that would make it harder for you to purchase a firearm. [Pols emphasis] And — now, you may be referring to issues like concealed carry, but those tend to be state-by-state decisions, and we’re not making any proposals with respect to what states are doing. They can make their own decisions there.

So there really is no — nothing we’re proposing that prevents you or makes it harder for you to purchase a firearm if you need one.

Obama then notes that there are arguments on both sides of the debate over whether owning a gun makes a person safer from crime. Statistically there are incidents where individuals successfully defend themselves with a gun, but many others where people are actually victimized with their own guns turned against them.

But the bottom line? Obama is not trying to take her guns away:

In the meantime, all I’m focused on is making sure that a terrible crime like yours that was committed is not made easier because somebody can go on the Internet and just buy whatever weapon they want without us finding out whether they’re a criminal or not.

The biggest difference between 2013 exchange between sexual assault victim Amanda Collins and Sen. Hudak and yesterday’s questioning of Obama is that Obama began by expressing compassion for the terrible crime committed against this woman. Politically and morally that is absolutely where you must begin. From there, Obama patiently explains that what he has ordered will not make it more difficult for her to defend herself and her family against an assailant. Then and only then does he proceed to discuss the large body of evidence that suggests gun ownership does not make your family safer at all–the unfortunate reality that incensed gun rights activists when Hudak said it.

The somewhat less compassionate exchange between another assault victim and Sen. Hudak in 2013 was heavily exaggerated and misused to incite gun owners to join the recall campaigns in retaliation for the passage of gun safety bills that year. Judging from the similar attempt underway to gin up outrage over Obama’s sensible and inoffensive answers to Corban’s questions yesterday evening, it looks like the gun lobby really hoped for a repeat.

But nothing we can see here makes President Obama look bad, even a little. He took an unfriendly question in a town hall he had organized–itself a commendable act in this scripted day and age–and handled it…well, presidentially.

—–

CORRECTION: Although Kimberly Corban (then Kimberly Weeks) testified in 2013 against gun safety legislation in Colorado, the exchange between Senator Evie Hudak and Weeks originally described in this story in fact involved Amanda Collins, another local victim of sexual assault. Weeks, now a gun rights activist, was present for this exchange and has frequently cited it in subsequent news reports. Nonetheless we regret the error and have taken steps to correct it above.

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22 thoughts on “Obama Answers Local Pro-Gun Crime Victim With Respect”

    1. I saw in DailyKos where the Friday morning quarterbacks were saying he could have followed up with a line about Democrats who championed safety locks are actually trying to help her have safe guns in her home.  I personally thought his answer was an adequate reply to her question.  He did talk about gun accidents in the home and how his administration is working to keep guns out of a would be assailants hands so a run wouldn't be pointed at her.

  2. I'm not sure what he's supposed to do.  She made two arguments, one is that she will be prevented (or restricted) from obtaining a gun.  Another is that it's important to bring her gun with her wherever she is for protection.  He disagreed.

    I've always been a fan of Jim Jefferies' take on guns as protection.

    1. He didn't disagree on the 2nd question.  Open carry is a state by state issue and he said that his actions had no impact on current open carry laws in the various state.

  3. She was interviewed on CNN afterwards as well, and had her robotic NRA talking points down pat.  There is no acknowledgement whatsoever that if you have no disqualifying factors to gun ownership, the President's proposal will have no impact on you whatsoever.

  4. Wrong. Obama did to this rape victim exactly what Hudak did. They both tried to tell her what's best for her personal safety and her family's safety. They both dismissed her belief in self-protection even after she was raped.

    Liberals who claim to know what's best for others have a body count to answer for.

    2. He did nothing of the kind, spoke to her very respectfully and assured her that he wasn't talking about taking anyone's gun away.  Hudiak, on the other hand, was a complete asshole about it. You're full of it, as usual.

    3. I just want to repeat that there’s nothing that we’ve proposed that would make it harder for you to purchase a firearm. And — now, you may be referring to issues like concealed carry, but those tend to be state-by-state decisions, and we’re not making any proposals with respect to what states are doing. They can make their own decisions there.

      Please, for the benefit of all of us, point out where in that response Obama said what was best for her. I really just want to see if you actually saw/read what Obama said, or if you just have a knee jerk response to any thing that says both "Obama" and "guns" in the same sentence. 

  5. One thing that Obama touched on but didn't pursue was that it takes training to point a gun at another human being in a moment of crisis when they also have a gun and get the shot off accurately before they do.  Police and military train intensively to be able to operate in a crisis and this victim parrots the NRA talking points that good guys always out shoot the bad guys.  And then there is no recognition of the psychological consequences of killing another human being.  It's a pretty shakey rationale that all we have to do is arm every soccer mom in the country and the bad guys will be on the run.  She came across as one smarmy lobbyist for the NRA.

    1. Wuh, wuh, so what if a person buys a gun that winds up killing themselves, or a loved one?  As P.T.Barnum said, there's a sucker born every minute, so customers lost to gun deaths are easily replaced. Guns and Ammo Forever!

      But now, if voter suppression ID laws aren't enforced then a Republican NRA Stooge  elected official might lose their government paycheck and their ability to really screw things up for everyone else.  That would be an unbearable tragedy.

  7. Actually, the rape victim who Evie Hudak was accused disrespecting for her questions following testimony was Amanda Collins.   It's my understanding that the NRA made her a traveling testimony road show exhibit. Worked so well in Colorado……

    1. Regardless, Hudiak was still a complete asshole in her response to a rape victim. And, also regardless, whether studies show that carrying a gun makes a person safer or puts them more at risk, Obama isn't proposing anything would prevent Ms. Collins or Ms Corbin from doing so. Those who would like some of Obama’s proposals to succeed aren’t doing anyone any favors by being assholes to rape victims or providing those who claim it’s all a secret plan to take away our guns with plenty of fodder.

      1. And Ms Hudiak got recalled in a democratic election so maybe the voting public isn't as dumb as some people make them out to be.  I believe that seat is up for election in 2016 and it would be a perfect time for Dems. to nominate someone who has better public manners.  Obama was the epitome of political politeness in that meeting.  Amazing grace and thoughtfulness on stage.  We might not ever see that kind of genuine, political brilliance again.  He knew his subject in detail and schooled both Ms. Corbin and Anderson Cooper.  He even knew about the NRA shutting down Colt and their attempts to create a smart chip technology gun.  The guy was in a different galaxy than Hudiak at dealing with an advesary.

    2. Thank you for clarifying this. We got our reports tangled and have fully corrected to account for the fact that Amanda Collins was the subject of the 2013 news reports.

  8. I have to question if someone like Ms. Corbin who has been intimately involved with gun organizations and gun rights and to some degree seems obsessed with having them wouldn't know that the presidents orders did nothing to prevent her from owning guns.  It is also doubtful that she wouldn't know exactly which states permit open carry and which ones don't.  Someone who actually knows the laws and then pretends that they are something different is nothing more than a blatant liar and cheap carnival barker trying to trick the rubes.  Hard to image Ms. Corbin walked into that town hall meeting totally ignorant of the gun regulations being discussed.

  9. In Evie Hudak's defense, her reply to Amanda Collins was insensitive, but factual. Ms. Hudak  said:

    "I just want to say that, actually, statistics are not on your side even if you had a gun," Hudak told Collins during the hearing, according to the report. "And chances are that if you would have had a gun, then he would have been able to get that from you and possibly use it against you."

    Hudak cited statistical data compiled by the Colorado Coalition Against Gun Violence, claiming that for every woman who used a handgun to kill someone in self-defense, 83 were murdered by their own weapon, The Post reported.

    Sorry, but that is true.  However, Collins came to the hearing intending to nail Hudak on the concealed carry issue, and facts were not something she was interested in hearing. It was a set-up, exactly as Ms. Corban's query to Obama was a set-up. These people actually have no empathy whatsoever with victims of date rape, spousal rape, any kind of rape, really. Gun heads tend to hypothesize that all rape is questionable, perhaps not "legitimate" rape, and many would also deny abortion to pregnancies resulting from a sexual assault. So this pretended compassion for sexual assault survivors is, of course, completely bogus and hypocritical.

    Hudak would have done better to empathize with the victim's trauma first, as Obama did, and then move on to the factual data later, but she was far from being a "complete asshole about it," as Bluecat claimed.   Senator Hudak later apologized to Ms. Collins, and when the recall movement escalated, resigned rather than possibly give Republicans a chance at a Senate majority, which was all this was really ever about. It was never about victims, it wasn't even only about guns. Those were mere excuses for a power grab. Everybody understood that at the time, whether they admitted it or not.

    We owe Hudak big time for her timely resignation, which saved the Democratic Senate majority, and for many other pieces of pioneering legislation, such as the Colorado jobs bill, age-appropriate sex education bill, the elder abuse bill, taking guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, education progress, and much more.

    As Pols wrote in the O P above,

    The somewhat less compassionate exchange between another assault victim and Sen. Hudak in 2013 was heavily exaggerated and misused to incite gun owners to join the recall campaigns in retaliation for the passage of gun safety bills that year.

    1. Still indefensible way to address a rape victim. Also totally counterproductive, hands great talking point to opponenents. Incredibly stupid as well as insensitive. Hudak's decision to resign, on the other hand, was a very admirable one. Good people can be assholes once in a while. Smart people can do dumb things sometimes. Jumping to defense or attack in specific instances based strictly on partisanship doesn't change a single persuadable mind. Just reinforces the belief, common among middle of the roaders, that everybody is just as bad as everybody on both sides so why bother? 

  10. Interesting — according to today's Denver Post, Ms. Corbin's presence at the Obama Town Hall appears to have been carefully orchestrated (like much in "reality TV" it seems).  She was there by special invitation of CNN.

    As a spokesperson for the Weld County DA's office, it also seems she was the designated stand-in charged with delivering the NRA's official talking points in order to misrepresent the nature and effect of Obama's executive actions.  Attractive, well-spoken women are much more sympathetic than angry old men that run the NRA.  And of course what happened to her is tragic and certainly does make a powerful foundation for her perspective on owning a gun, however misguided, if statistical facts are considered.

    But as disingenuous as her question and statements were, presumably President Obama was equally prepared with his response.  Kabuki Theater…

    http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_29359579/colorado-rape-victim-challenges-obamas-stand-guns-at

     

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