Shooting Straight: How Presidential Candidates Have Changed On Gun Control
You're free to republish or share any of our articles (either in part or in full), which are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Our only requirement is that you give Ammo.com appropriate credit by linking to the original article. Spread the word; knowledge is power!
In the run up to the 2012 election, both President Obama and Governor Romney downplayed the topic of gun control – even though Americans were on pace to buy more firearms than ever before. Because neither candidate was an avid shooter, special interest groups such as the NRA and the Brady Campaign dominated much of the campaign rhetoric.
With this presidency came huge responsibility to the Second Amendment, as the previous four years had seen two high-profile 2A cases narrowly decided by split 5-4 decisions. President Obama’s victory ended up resulting in two appointments to the Supreme Court – Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – neither of whom have done any favors for gun rights.
It's important to look at how each candidate's position on gun control has evolved over time since entering the political arena. This infographic is a great example of how this has happened in a recent election – and you'll see that both candidates started out more in favor of gun control than either campaign would like you to remember. It’s a stark reminder of why it’s important to research a candidate’s political past.

Featured On
Infographics
- Are Guns & Ammo The New Gold? Why More Americans Are Arming Themselves
- The Greatest Gun Salesman In America: President Barack Obama
- Shooting Straight: How Both Presidential Candidates Have Changed On Gun Control
- President Obama: (Still) The Greatest Gun Salesman in America
- An Inconvenient Truth: How The Obama Administration Became Earth's Largest Arms Dealer
- Armed Drones: President Obama's Weapon of Choice
- COVID-19 Data Study: Ammunition Sales Continue to Soar in Response to Coronavirus Panic
- Data Study: 18 Months of Ammo Sales during a Pandemic, Protests, and the Biden Presidency
- Data Study: U.S. Ammo Sales Surge Following Russian Invasion of Ukraine
- Most Gun-Friendly States in 2023
- Worst States to be a Gun Owner (2023 Updated)
- Adolescents & Firearms: America’s Most Inflated Crisis
- Urban Violent Crime & Legal Gun Ownership
- Gun-Free School Zones & Shootings Statistic (2023 Updated)