'People occupy different realities' on guns, Obama says in CNN town hall

WASHINGTON — Seeking to defend his executive actions on guns Thursday, President Obama attempted to bridge a cultural divide between Americans who own guns and those who fear them.

"Part of the reason I think this becomes a difficult issue is because people occupy different realities," Obama told CNN host Anderson Cooper in a passionate but civil televised town hall forum on guns. "There are a whole bunch of law-abiding citizens who have grown up hunting with their dad or going to the shooting range, and are responsible gun-owners, and then there's the reality that there are neighborhoods around the country where it is easier for a 12- or a 13-year-old to purchase a gun and cheaper than it is for them to get a book."

In his pitch for what he called "common-sense" gun safety measures, Obama addressed gun owners directly: "Keep in mind, for the gun owners who are in attendance here, my suspicion is that you all had to go through a background check. And it didn't prevent you from getting a weapon. And the notion that you should have to do that, but there are a whole bunch of folks who are less responsible than you who don't have to do it, doesn't make much sense."

The television special comes two days after Obama took a modest series of executive actions intended to better enforce existing gun laws, primarily by cracking down on unlicensed gun dealers who evade background checks by selling guns for profit at gun shows and online. He announced those actions in an tearfully emotional speech from the White House, but the 72-minute CNN event was a more temperate forum that allowed skeptics of his policy to confront him directly.

The town hall forum, on the campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., invited gun control advocates, gun owners and gun dealers for the prime-time special.

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They included Taya Kyle, widow of Christopher Kyle of "American Sniper" fame, rape victim Kimberly Corban, Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu, a Republican running for Congress, and Kris Jacob, vice president of the American Firearms Retailers Association. All of them said the focus should be on criminals rather than law-abiding gun owners.

"I have been unspeakably victimized once already, and I refuse to let that happen again to myself or my kids," said Corban.

"There nothing we’ve proposed that would make it harder for you to purchase a firearm," Obama said.

On the other side were gun control advocates and victims of gun violence. Astronaut Mark Kelly, who founded a gun control advocacy group with his wife, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, after she was shot in 2011, noted there were 350 million guns in the United States. "If the federal government wanted to confiscate those objects, how would they do that?" he asked.

Obama disagreed with fears that he would confiscate those guns — but said he does understand them. "This notion of a conspiracy out there, and it gets wrapped up in concerns about the federal government," he said. "There's a long history of that, that's in our DNA, you know? The United States was born suspicious of some distant authority."

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The nation's largest gun rights group boycotted the event. "The National Rifle Association sees no reason to participate in a public relations spectacle orchestrated by the White House," said Andrew Arulanandam, the managing director of public affairs for the NRA.

Both the White House and CNN said that the news network conceived and organized the special. And Obama said he's eager to debate the NRA.

"Part of the reason I welcomed this opportunity by CNN … is because our position is consistently mischaracterized," Obama said. "And by the way, there's a reason why the NRA is not here. They're just down the street. And since this is the main reason they exist, you'd think they'd be prepared to have a debate with the president."

Instead, the NRA's chief lobbyist was across the dial on Fox News, where he spoke to host Megyn Kelly.

"This president’s lost all credibility, because he’s no longer credible to speak to the issues of law-abiding gun owners," said Chris W. Cox, director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action. “This president would have the American people believe that in order to love your children, you have to hate your firearms,"