Demonstrators greet Obama in Oregon
»Play Video
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Advocates demanding tougher gun-control laws were among several dozen demonstrators who greeted President Barack Obama outside a fundraising stop in Oregon on Tuesday.
In the wake of a mass shooting that killed 12 and injured 58 others in Aurora, Colo., last week, demonstrators said Obama needs to stand up to the deep-pocketed National Rifle Association. They want him to push Congress to reinstate an expired ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines that expired in 2004.
"He hasn't been aggressive about promoting change in the culture of violence," said DeEtte Waleed of Portland, who added that she'll nonetheless vote for him because "the alternative is just too scary to contemplate."
Protesters were kept far back from the entrance to the Oregon Convention Center, where the president was scheduled to hold a fundraiser Tuesday afternoon for his re-election campaign. His motorcade did not pass them.
Penny Okamoto, director of the gun-control group Cease Fire Oregon, noted that some of the victims in Aurora were killed or wounded while trying to protect others.
"We need Obama, Romney, to be just as brave and stand up to the NRA," Okamoto said.
"Their kind words, their platitudes — that's nice, but we need action. We need leadership," she said.
Several dozen demonstrators pushed other issues, too, most of them liberal causes. Some protested punitive marijuana laws, others the use of drones to kill suspected terrorists or plans to export coal through Northwest ports for use in Asia.
Obama's plane touched down about 11:30 a.m. at the base for the 142nd Fighter Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard. On his way to the convention center, the president stopped a Portland diner and ate a grilled cheese sandwich and split pea and ham soup.
Tim King, a server at Gateway Breakfast House, said the restaurant offered Obama lunch on the house, but Obama insisted on paying.
Obama is scheduled to depart Tuesday evening for Seattle, where he's scheduled to stay the night and attend more fundraisers on Wednesday.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
How old is this story and what is it doing still up here??
Lying Zionist media hijacking a legitimate issue to hoist their anti-gun agenda.
Â
 @coinageboy Thanks for trying to make pro-gun Americans look like racists, jerk! I hope nobody paints me with the same brush as you.
http://jpfo.org/filegen-a-m/deathgc.htm
 Well, where is your objection to the hijacked agenda, fat boy??
I invite anyone who believes tougher gun control laws will stop tragedies like Aurora to join us for a polite conversation on NorthwestFirearms.com.Â
Good use of the shooting "crisis" to push the gun ban agenda. Amazing how the timing with the UN agreement and the nut job worked out so well. Remember never let a crisis go to waste.
So his base realizes that not only has he stabbed them in the back, but he's failed even to get the economy turned around. We're still up to our necks in Afghanistan and were basically a bankrupt nation with no hope of ever getting out. Here's the really pathetic news, they'll still vote for him and he'll most likely win.
The elite have reduced us to choosing bad vs worse. We need world war 3
This comment has been deleted
 @archangels007 Not having a gun in your house means that you are far less likely to die due to homicide or suicide than if you did have a gun. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/research/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death/index.html
This comment has been deleted
 @Max Quinn So what you are saying is, if you own or ride in a car, you are much more likely to be involved in an auto accident?
Of course statistics show that, how could it show anything else?
It would be like saying that fewer people are injured by fireworks, in an area that has no access to fireworks. Or that getting caught in the rain is more likely in an area with a high average rainfall.
 @Owt_Raged True enough.
Â
Obviously, mental health plays a role - but the fact of the matter is that the availability of a gun in the house increases the risk that the owner will act in a harmful manner. That's the point I'm making - a gun in your house statistically makes you or someone else in the house more likely to be harmed by a gun
LOL you have been drinking too much koolaid!!! There have been many studies done on this, and the Harvard one is skewed to the left way too far. Statistically, you are much safer if EVERYONE has a gun, and isn't afraid to use it appropiately!
No, facts and logic do NOT have a liberal bias - but large universities and colleges all have very liberal, even Marxist, ideas, and go around skewing the studies to prove their theories! Even the media have a liberal bias; so your links are all skewed as to the facts! That is, they interpret the "facts" as they see fit to promote their own agenda. Try this link www.justfacts.com/guncontrol.asp and this one www.datamasher.org/mash-ups/crime-vs-gun-ownership .
 @musiclover Are you saying that if the entire family is packing heat, they will be safer? That's nuts.
Â
Point to a couple of these "many studies."
Â
Here are few others supporting the idea that having guns in the house increases the risk of being killed by a gun:
Â
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/content/160/10/929.full
http://arstechnica.com/science/2011/04/guns-in-the-home-lots-of-risk-ambiguity/
http://www.newswise.com/articles/guns-in-the-home-increase-costs-as-well-as-dangers
http://www.mnn.com/health/fitness-well-being/blogs/study-guns-in-the-home-offer-more-risk-than-benefit
Â
Facts and logic tend to have a liberal bias...
Â
What we need is more guns to protect ourselves from mass shooters, robbers, and thugs!
@portlandborn83 As a gun carrying liberal,I won't hesitate to defend myself from a thug.
 @noneofyourbizzness  @portlandborn83 Apparently the NRA does not know about the Blue Steel Democrats. For gun ownership and against the NRA.
 @No_Conservitards You do know the NRA donates to Democrats too, right?Â
This comment has been deleted
 @donny How'd those two years of Democratic control of the House, Senate, and White House work out for you? You're a fool if you think either party has your best interest in mind.Â
 @donny You do realize that it was the Republicans that ended slavery. You realize that it was Republicans who ended segregation in schools. You do realize that is was Republicans that passed the civil rights laws? Were it not for a Republican majority in Congress, Democrats would have struck it down as almost all of them voted against it.
And you DO realize it was the Democrats who made it legal for American companies to earn money overseas and not pay taxes on it, right?
Â
So conservatives say the sky is falling and it is all Obama's fault. Obama shows up in Portland and there are a handful or protesters, but they are protesting that he is not liberal enough. When president Bush showed up here, Portlanders greeted him with thousands of protesters. They lined the road from the airport to each of his destinations. And that was back in the good ol' days when everything was peachy: no financial crisis (yet) and the conservatives were happy as clams that the United States was bombing another country off the planet.Â
"Tim King, a server at Gateway Breakfast House, said the restaurant offered Obama lunch on the house, but Obama insisted on paying." Thanks, Dear Leader! I know it may seem impertinent of me, but this just seems like the time to ask, "When are you going to reimburse the treasury for all the vacations you and Michelle have taken?"Â
Â
You're not? I know, I know, sometimes you just forget the magnitude of the recession.
@HenryBowman Can't you bring up a legitimate critisism of the President's policies instead of stooping to the level of a jr.high school girl?
 @noneofyourbizzness  @HenryBowman You want proof here it is  http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=JVAhr4hZDJE&vq=medium#t=19*
@riderofthelegend @HenryBowman What a crock! Freedom for the individual just as long as you're a white Christian heterosexual male.
 @HenryBowman He is still at about 1/3 of the vacation time Bush took at this point in office. Because you are not a hypocrite, I know you complained about that too, right? Moreover, you complained 200% louder, just to be fair, right?
@Hondo @HenryBowman And most of Bush's "vacations" were to his home in Texas, where the taxpayer didn't have to pay his restaurant tab or his hotel bill. And the fuel to fly him to and from Texas was cheaper.Â
it's an obamanation!
"Tim King, a server at Gateway Breakfast House, said the restaurant offered Obama lunch on the house, but Obama insisted on paying."
Â
It's silly, but the law requires him to pay. It is one of the parts of the legislation crafted to keep money out of politics that SCOTUS didn't gut from being enforced.
Â
You can GIVE for the purposes of election as much money as you want, millions, billions, and you can then even spend on your own millions, or billions more, but you can't give any politician a $12 breakfast.
This comment has been deleted
 @Jabroni We're so glad you don't live here either. Have fun in Mom's basement.Â