In an interview with The New Republic, President Barack Obama suggested he regularly goes skeet shooting with guests at Camp David.

“[U]p at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time,” Obama said. “Not the girls, but oftentimes guests of mine go up there. And I have a profound respect for the traditions of hunting that trace back in this country for generations. And I think those who dismiss that out of hand make a big mistake. Part of being able to move this forward is understanding the reality of guns in urban areas are very different from the realities of guns in rural areas.”

“And if you grew up and your dad gave you a hunting rifle when you were ten, and you went out and spent the day with him and your uncles, and that became part of your family’s traditions, you can see why you’d be pretty protective of that,” Obama added. “So it’s trying to bridge those gaps that I think is going to be part of the biggest task over the next several months. And that means that advocates of gun control have to do a little more listening than they do sometimes.”

Obama has aggressively pushed for tougher gun control laws since last month’s mass shooting in Newton, Conn. left 27 dead. But some of the new policies championed by the president, including a ban on military-style “assault weapons,” are receiving only tepid support from red-state Democrats in Congress.

New Republic editor-in-chief Franklin Foer conducted the interview alongside Chris Hughes, the publication’s 29-year-old publisher. Hughes is a co-founder of Facebook, and worked for Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign as an online organizer.

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