Politico Story on Joyce Foundation Inaccurately Implies Obama Supports Banning Handguns

JOYCE FOUNDATION GAVE OUT HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WHILE OBAMA WAS ON THE BOARD--THE VAST MAJORITY TO GROUPS THAT WERE NOT RELATED TO GUN VIOLENCE

Joyce Foundation Gave Out More Than $240 Million While Obama Was on the Board; $30 Million to Gun Violence Groups. The Joyce Foundation gave out $240,220,161 while Obama was on the board. $30,192,584.00 went to groups fighting gun violence. The 94 gun violence-related grants given while he was with the Foundation were about 6 percent of the total number of grants they gave during that period. [Joyce Foundation Annual Reports]

Joyce Foundation Funded Efforts To Reduce Gun Violence That Were Not Related to a Position on Handguns

$600,000.00 to the University of Pennsylvania to activate trauma surgeons in the effort to reduce gun injuries and deaths

$600,000.00 to the Harvard University School of Public Health for the development of a national firearm injury reporting system

$317,733.00 to the Duke University Office of Research Support to conduct and oversee research which seeks to produce an accurate estimate of the annual cost of gunshot wounds in the United States [Joyce Foundation Annual Reports]

Joyce Foundation Gave Hundreds of Millions of Dollars to Non-Gun Related Efforts While Obama Was Involved

$1,500,000.00 to the Chicago Community Trust to support the Chicago High School Redesign Initiative in 2002

$1,009,386.00 to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Center for Education Research to assist the Milwaukee public schools in developing and implementing a balanced student assessment system; and to conduct research and provide technical assistance on how individual schools in Milwaukee can best acquire and utilize data from the district data system in 2000

$750,000.00 to the Center for Law and Social Policy to develop recommendations and advocate for policies to improve the labor market prospect of low-income adults in 2001

$350,000.00 to the Center for Responsive Politics to provide citizens with information on the campaign finance records of elected officials in 1999 [Joyce Foundation Annual Reports]

Joyce Foundation Has a Broad Mission: To Support Great Lakes Protection, Reduce Poverty And Violence In The Region, Ensure Access To "Good Schools, Decent Jobs, And A Diverse And Thriving Culture." The Joyce Foundation supports efforts to protect the natural environment of the Great Lakes, to reduce poverty and violence in the region, and to ensure that its people have access to good schools, decent jobs, and a diverse and thriving culture. We are especially interested in improving public policies, because public systems such as education and welfare directly affect the lives of so many people, and because public policies help shape private sector decisions about jobs, the environment, and the health of our communities. To ensure that public policies truly reflect public rather than private interests, we support efforts to reform the system of financing election campaigns. [joycefdn.org, Mission Statement]

OBAMA HAS CONSISTENTLY SUPPORTED PROTECTING THE SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS OF LAWFUL GUN-OWNERS AND HUNTERS WHILE CHAMPIONING COMMON-SENSE MEASURES TO CRACK DOWN ON GUN VIOLENCE

Obama Said That It Is Not Incompatible For The Second Amendment To Be Respected And To Crack Down On Gun Violence. Tim Russert asked, "Senator Obama, when you were in the state senate, you talked about licensing and registering gun owners. Would you do that as president?" Obama said, "I don't think that we can get that done. But what I do think we can do is to provide just some common-sense enforcement...But here's the broader context that I think is important for us to remember. We essentially have two realities, when it comes to guns, in this country. You've got the tradition of lawful gun ownership, that all of us saw, as we travel around rural parts of the country. And it is very important for many Americans to be able to hunt, fish, take their kids out, teach them how to shoot. And then you've got the reality of 34 Chicago public school students who get shot down on the streets of Chicago. We can reconcile those two realities by making sure the Second Amendment is respected and that people are able to lawfully own guns, but that we also start cracking down on the kinds of abuses of firearms that we see on the streets." [Debate, 1/15/08]

Obama: America Has A "Tradition Of Gun Ownership In This Country That Can Be Respected." The Weekly Standard reported, "When a student asks Obama for his views on the Second Amendment, he reminds his audience that he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago and is thus familiar with the arguments regarding the right to bear arms. He acknowledges 'a tradition of gun ownership in this country that can be respected,' and says that his academic studies convinced him gun ownership 'is an individual right and not just the right of a militia.' But he was not finished. 'Like all rights, though, they are constrained by the needs and the rights of the community.' Obama then spoke of 34 students who were killed on the streets of Chicago and called for sensible gun control to prevent senseless death." [Weekly Standard, 12/17/07]

Obama Said That The Rights Of Hunters And Lawful Gun Owners Can Be Protected While Working To Reduce Gun Violence. "On guns, the plan states, 'Obama believes that we can protect the rights of hunters and other lawful gun owners while still working to reduce gun violence.'" [Las Vegas Review Journal, 11/7/07]

2001: Obama "I Do Not Object To The Lawful Use And Ownership Of Handguns." Obama said, "I do not object to the lawful use and ownership of firearms, but I do think it is entirely it appropriate for the state to monitor it. Too many of these guns end up in the hands of criminals even though they were originally purchased by people who did not have a felony." [Chicago Defender, 7/5/01]

JOYCE FOUNDATION IS A MAINSTREAM ORGANIZATION THAT WAS A FUNDER OF A BILL CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Joyce Foundation Served As A National Sponsor Of The 1996 Presidential Debates. The AP reported, "While President Clinton and Bob Dole share the limelight of the debates, Philip Morris, Sprint, and other corporate giants will be offstage paying the bills. The Commission on Presidential Debates has already secured between $25,000 and $250,000 each from five companies to be national sponsors of the three debates. An additional $1.5 million is being raised from companies in the host cities. All will get tax deductions...Three nonprofit foundations also serve as national sponsors: the Joyce Foundation, The Marjorie Kovler Fund, and Twentieth Century Fund. Under campaign finance laws passed in response to the Watergate scandal, corporations are banned from contributing money to political campaigns." [AP, 9/28/96]

President Bill Clinton Thanked The Joyce Foundation For Sponsoring The Conference On The Future Of The American Workplace. The following is a transcript of President Clinton's remarks to the Conference on the Future of the American Workplace. President Bill Clinton said, "I'd also be remiss if I didn't thank Adele Simons, the president of McArthur Foundation, for that foundation's support for this conference; and the Joyce Foundation for supporting the conference." [US Newswire, 7/26/93]