Obama Presidency a Surprise Boon to Gun Owners

New laws allowing weapons in bars, national parks and Amtrak trains were probably the last thing gun-rights advocates would have expected from the Obama administration. But that's exactly what's happened, as the president stays largely silent on the gun issue while states bracing for a pro-gun-control agenda from Washington rush to loosen their gun laws.

Virginia has scrapped a 17-year-old ban on buying more than one handgun a month, and Montana and Tennessee recently passed unprecedented laws exempting themselves from federal regulation of firearms made, sold and used in their states. None of which has earned Obama any friends on either side of the gun debate: Gun control advocates are disappointed in the president's failure to deliver on promises, while the head of the NRA continues to warn that "the first chance Obama gets, he will pounce on us.” (More President Obama stories.)