Man With the Golden Gun

--President Obama--

There's a bad man cruising around 
in a big black limousine 
 Don't let it be wrong, don't let it be right 
Get in his way, you're dead in his sight 
--Big Gun, AC/DC 

Mama used to tell me 
Girl, you better load your gun up right 
She said ya, ya gotta come out smokin' 
Hit it with your best shot every time 
--Love is in Control, Donna Summer 

I know my destiny is like the sun
You see the best of me when I have got my gun 
--I'm Gonna Get Me a Gun, Cat Stevens
___________________

Surely every president loves his photo ops, and why should President Obama be any different?

Since gun control is a hot-button issue, BHO does not wish to look like a wussy as he ramrods through his position, ergo the recent photo of him striking a pose while skeet shooting.  But the photo seemed as inauthentic and staged as his ostensible dip in the Gulf of Mexico after British Petroleum's disastrous oil spill of 2010.

In that one, Mr. Obama was seen static in a small patch of some nondescript body of water with one of his offspring over the caption, "Swimming in the Gulf".  It seemed strained and joyless, like he was trying too hard, the lack of any place identifiers making the location of the dip indeterminate.  Not that swimming in the Redneck Riviera is a cause for joy, but still, there was no frolic in the dip.

Now we have an equally serious Mr. Obama drawing a bead on some skeet, so here is some minutiae (as seen through a gunman's lens):

--The Length of Pull (LOP) is too great. The gun is too long for Obama (Ranger measured the photo with calipers to confirm.)  With a too-long LOP the gun is too far forward, precluding proper use of the eye on the sighting plane of the shotgun.  Obama's head is too erect and not in proper relation to the gun target eye-line.

--His ear protection appears to be of a general industrial variety, not the slimmer profile earphones used in the shooting sports.  The slimmer earphones are designed to not interfere with the "stock-weld" -- the proper placement of the cheek in relationship to the stock.  If the President were properly down on his gun, the earphones would bang into the stock.

--What are the puffs of smoke coming from the the compensation ports in the barrel?  Doesn't HBO shoot  smokeless powder loads?  Further, where is the recoil which would be expected from a 12-guage shotgun?  Also, what is the (apparently) plastic wad just out of the bore?  Is this round live, or just a blank load for the photo?

--Where is his headgear (this appears to be a summer shot)?  Most shooters wear sun protection.  Mr. Obama was wearing a hat while out golfing with House Speaker John Boehner, but not here.

--This is how it's done

Further thoughts:

Has Mr. Obama taken National Rifle Association training for his shooting skills?  Why not bring the NRA on board, say to a summit at Camp David to help work out a reasonable gun owning stance for the nation?  If United States presidents can bring Palestinians and Jews to the bargaining table, then surely  a gun guy like Mr. Obama should be able to communicate with the leadership of the nation's largest gun lobby.

Why must our nation be so riven and suffer so much antagonism?  To what endpoint the ongoing and corrosive hostility?  The White House could set up a reloading room at the Camp, and the happy shooters could schmooze while cleaning their weapons and discussing their love of all things guns, reveling in their mutual uniquely American brand of manhood.

If Obama does not invite the NRA, then they should invite him.  If Mr. Obama could bring radical academic Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and a police officer together in a "beer summit", he can hobnob with the NRA.

The one positive of the photo is that Obama did not shoot anyone in the face (as a recent hapless past Vice President did.) Being a gunnie, we are sorry he did not visit our local Coon Bottom Skeet and Gun Club whilst here in the Panhandle for his previous photo op.

We just hope the President is not shooting blanks, in any sense of the term.