In tonight’s presidential debate, President Obama answered a question about “keeping AK-47’s out of the hands of criminals” by pledging his support for an assault weapons ban. Although he parried Governor Romney’s opposition to the ban by paraphrasing the old anti-Kerry slam—“Governor Romney was for an assault weapon’s ban before he was against it”—the damage is done. In a single stroke the President completely alienated pro-gun independents. Obama’s support for new gun control move may not decide the election. Then again it might. (*cough* Al Gore *cough*) Meanwhile, AR manufacturers are bracing themselves for a major sales spike. Like tomorrow. Here are some actual quotes from the debate and commentary by our man Leghorn . . .

President Obama started strong, nodding towards an understanding of the second amendment. “I believe in the second amendment. We have a long tradition of hunting and sportsmen and people that want to protect themselves.” But then he slipped into the old party rhetoric that we’re familiar with. “But there are too many instances where I’ve had to comfort people.”

President Obama’s position was that we need to start by enforcing the laws that are on the books, but he clearly favored enacting a new assault weapons ban. His opinion is that “Weapons that were designed for soldiers, in war theaters, don’t belong on our streets.”

Never mind that the vast majority of firearms were designed for the military to begin with, and “assault weapons” make up less than four percent of guns used in crimes, evil looking guns need to be banned. Specifically “automatic weapons that kill folks.”

President Obama did indicate that he understood that “assault weapons” were not the real problem, noting that in his home city “They’re not using AK-47s [to kill each other], they’re using cheap handguns.” But that’s not stopping him from going full speed ahead with the new AWB.

While Romney might seem to be the better option then, he didn’t seem to have a proper grasp on the current gun laws. At one point he stated that machine guns were illegal in the United States, but as anyone who has fond memories of the Knob Creek machine gun shoot would know full auto is only a $200 tax stamp away. Another in the long list of fact checking that needs to be done against his speeches, it seems.

Who got the better of this one? Do you really need to ask?