White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest tried to justify President Obama’s disproven statement that it is easier in many communities to buy a Glock than a book on Wednesday, saying that "with all due respect to the fact-checkers," law enforcement officials are concerned about the the ready access of illegal weapons.
"We flood communities with so many guns that is easier for a teenager to buy a Glock than get his hands on a computer or even a book," Obama said at the memorial held July 12 for slain Dallas police officers.
Reporter Fred Lucas recounted to Earnest that both PolitiFact and the Washington Post’s Fact-Checker had rejected Obama’s claim, rating it "Mostly False" and "Three Pinocchios," respectively.
"Does the president actually believe that as fact, or does he say that kind of metaphorically, to demonstrate how easy it is to get a gun?" Lucas asked.
Earnest paused before responding.
"With all due respect to the fact-checkers, when the president delivered that line to a room full of about a thousand cops, there was not a lot of evident disagreement," Earnest said.
Earnest did not mention that it would have been uncouth for people to get up out of their chairs and shout down the president at a police memorial service.
"I think there is genuine concern in the minds of law enforcement officials who work in many of these economically disadvantaged communities about how readily accessible illegal guns are, and frankly, how hard it is for kids in that community to get access to a quality education or get access to high-quality educational opportunities that would eventually allow them to escape that neighborhood," Earnest said.
"The point that the president was making is rather than mobilize an effective policy response to that situation, by increasing funding for schools or passing common-sense gun control legislation, too often, at least in this Republican Congress, those obvious solutions have been rejected, and as a result, we’ve just asked law enforcement to deal with the problem," he added.
Earnest said it was unfair to put such an onus on law enforcement.
Obama has made the claim that it is easier to buy a gun than a book on two other occasions. In most states, it is illegal for a teenager to buy a handgun, but it is not illegal for them to purchase books in any of the 50 states.