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Michelle Obama is taking a break from getting our kids moving to focus on gun violence. It's a shift from something fairly non-controversial—everyone agrees childhood obesity is bad, right?—to a topic slightly more serious than what past first ladies have taken up. The Associated Press reports that she's combining gun violence with her overall efforts to help kids focus on completing their educations. After meeting with students at Chicago's Harper High School, where several students and alumni have been victims of gun violence, Obama told attendees at a fundraiser that Harper students were more focused on staying alive than finishing school.

Obama, who once said that being first lady has "prison-like elements," is taking a step out of her comfort zone. After years of recovering from PR stumbles early in her husband's first campaign, she's potentially putting herself back in the line of fire. Gun violence as a pet project is also a new concept for first ladies in general. Past first ladies have taken on initiatives that fulfill a certain feminine and maternal ideal. Yes, Obama's childhood obesity campaign isn't without its detractors. Rush Limbaugh claims her school lunch menu is starving children and he, along with a few other rotund conservatives, think it's hilarious to call the first lady fat. But, the core issue—encouraging kids to exercise and not develop high blood pressure before puberty—involves taking care of children. First ladies are expected to take on causes, but only causes appropriate for a lady. Looking back at the pet causes of some of our most recent first ladies, gun control is pretty wild: