Former Republican vice presidential hopeful and reality TV show star Sarah Palin often takes to her Facebook page to rant about President Barack Obama.
On Friday, Palin posted her latest diatribe, asking a series of questions about what she calls Obama's "twisted anti-Second Amendment mission."
Palin asked Obama to explain himself, while simultaneously noting it's "a special kind of stupid to demand" gun owners explain themselves.
Luckily for Palin, Obama has addressed most of these questions, answering some in a recent town hall hosted by PBS' "NewsHour," and others earlier this week after the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, that left 49 dead and 53 wounded.
Below, questions Palin raised in her June 17 Facebook post followed by Obama's stance.
Palin: "Today you're demanding an 'explanation' from law abiding gun owners, but not demanding the same from followers of Islam, the religion behind this terror?"
Obama never demanded "an 'explanation' from law abiding gun owners" for the Orlando shooting. After meeting with families of victims of the Orlando massacre, he said "those who defend the easy accessibility of assault weapons should meet these families and explain why that makes sense."
Obama said the United States would "continue to be relentless against terrorist groups like ISIL and al Qaeda." He has refused to use the phrase "radical Islam," recently saying the GOP’s fixation on the term is a “political distraction” from their own inaction.
As the New York Times points out, Islam "is a 1,500-year-old religion whose 1.6 billion followers worldwide observe a spectrum of customs and traditions." It's an unjust generalization to say those 1.6 billion people were “behind this terror.”
Palin: "If the demented Orlando terrorist doesn't represent all Islamic followers, then why do you insinuate he represents all gun owners?"
"There is a way for us to make sure that lawful, responsible gun owners like yourself are able to use them for sporting, hunting, protecting yourself, but the only way we’re going to do that is if we don’t have a situation in which anything that is proposed is viewed as some tyrannical destruction of the Second Amendment," Obama emphasized at the "NewsHour" town hall. "And that’s how the issue too often gets framed."
Palin: "And why, after any shooting, do you always want to take away firearms from the innocent people who didn't do it?"
"First of all, the notion that I or [presumptive Democratic presidential nominee] Hillary [Clinton] or Democrats or whoever you want to choose are hell-bent on taking away folks’ guns is just not true," Obama said at the "NewsHour" town hall.
"And I don’t care how many times the NRA says it. I’m about to leave office. There have been more guns sold since I have been president than just about any time in U.S. history. There are enough guns for every man, woman and child in this country," he continued. "And at no point have I ever, ever proposed confiscating guns from responsible gun owners. So it’s just not true."
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