Around the weekend of April 5 and 6, 2008, at a San Francisco’s fundraiser, Sen. Obama said:
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/13/nation/na-obama13
“You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not. . . ” <— this part is good
“ . . . So it's not surprising, then, that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.” <— this part is terrible
And the part religion is at the very least a huge social blind spot on the part of Obama. More than you or I might be or be comfortable being, some people are wired up to be devoutly religious. It makes sense to them, it gels with them emotionally, etc. In fact, a devoutly religious person thinks he or she understands a language which you and I might not.
Some people are completely against politics (say “they’re all crooks” and just push the whole thing away) but think their having a gun will make for last-minute good citizenship. Maybe for a zombie apocalypse , but in the real world where a middle-of-the-road gov’t drifts to authoritarian, one, you might end up being on the wrong side if you never try to realistically understand what’s going on in politics, and two, this is the government’s strong suit and they’re likely to label you as a rebel, a terrorist or worse. So, yes, I very much disagree with the view that a gun is automatically a last-minute bulwark for liberty, but this view and belief is definitely out there.
I do believe persons should be able to buy guns for self-defense without a waiting period. And if they wish to believe it will protect liberty in the future, they’re welcome to so believe whether or not I think it’s realistic.