Sen. Rand Paul: We won’t ‘let the liberals tread on the Second Amendment’

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul issued a blunt response to the State of the Union Tuesday evening, calling out liberals on gun issues and renouncing President Obama’s king-like way of governing.

“We will not let the liberals tread on the Second Amendment,” he said, according to a report in Politico, before then turning his attention to Mr. Obama’s drone strike against Anwar al-Awlaki. “We cannot and will not allow any president to act as if he were king. We will not tolerate secret lists of American citizens who can be killed without trial.”

Mr. Paul’s speech is being characterized as a much more in-your-face response than Sen. Marco Rubio’s. In his remarks, Mr. Paul also raised the ghost of former President Ronald Reagan, and reminded of that president’s 1981 inaugural address, when he referred to government as the problem, rather than the solution.

“President Obama believes government is the solution,” Mr. Paul said. “What American needs is not Robin Hood but Adam Smith.”