CASTLEWOOD, VA — Memo to Barack Obama: don’t mess with Joe Biden’s guns.

At a fish fry for mine workers in rural Southwest Virginia, the Delaware Senator commiserated on being from coal country himself — and did his damndest to convince the blue collar, mostly white Democrats that he’s on the ticket to win over that Obama’s one of them as well.

One of rural Democrats’ biggest fears about Obama? That he’ll come after the Second Amendment. Not so, said Biden — and he’d better not try.

“I guarantee you, Barack Obama ain’t taking my shotguns, so don’t buy that malarkey,” Biden said angrily. “They’re going to start peddling that to you.”

“I got two, if he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem.”

Biden has said he doesn’t hunt, but shoots skeet with his two firearms. “I like that little over and under, you know? I’m not bad with it,” he said today.

Much of his remarks focused on protecting labor from the “barbarians at the gate” — as Biden accused George Bush and John McCain of waging a war on unions. The Vice Presidential nominee also kept coal at the forefront, saying he could use the $4 billion in tax breaks that McCain wants to give to oil companies to instead develop clean coal technologies.

But the main message on the trail continues to be economic. Biden bashed McCain for his upcoming artcile urging deregulation of the health care industry to match the deregulation of banks over the last 10 years — just as that deregulation is being blamed for the collapse of several major Wall Street banks. (more…)

CINCINNATI, OH– Sen. John McCain praised the Supreme Court ruling striking down the D.C. gun ban Thursday, also taking a shot at Obama’s evolving position on the issue.

“(I) saw the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Second Amendment, and obviously I am very pleased about that decision,” McCain said as he opened quick Q and A session with reporters aboard his Straight Talk bus this morning. He added that he had filed an amicus brief on the case along with a group of fellow Senators.

Asked about the Obama’s recent reversal on the issue–the Democrat now supports the ruling despite calling the ban constitutional last year–McCain said Obama’s evolution on gun ownership is part of a trend.

“All I can say is, it’s a one in a long series of reversals of positions. In a few days he has gone from opposing nuclear power to not a proponent to willing to explore,” McCain said. “Whether it be on his pledge on public financing, or his position on the second amendment, or any other issues he is changing his positions. So it’s not surprising.”

Obama stood by his support for the DC gun ban when asked about it in an interview with WJLA (ABC 7) in February. “There is nothing wrong with a community saying we are going to take those illegal handguns off the streets, we are going to trace more effectively, how these guns are ending up on the streets, to unscrupulous gun dealers, who often times are selling to straw purchasers. And cracking down on the various loopholes that exist in terms of background checks for children, the mentally ill. Those are all approaches that I think the average gun owner would actually support,” Obama said. But today, the IL Senator expressed some support for the decision during an interview with the Fox Business Network.

The GOPer added that while it is fine by him for a politician to change positions if conditions change but that Obama has been shifting his views for political reasons.

“If conditions change that argue for people’s change in policies (that is fine), but on fundamental issues such as second amendment, such as a public pledge, repeated over and over, which he was the case in public financing, then I think that’s very different,” McCain added.

The McCain campaign unloaded on Barack Obama today for his remarks at a San Francisco fundraiser last weekend, where the Democrat said “bitter” Pennsylvania voters “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

“It is a remarkable statement and extremely revealing,” McCain advisor Steve Schmidt told reporters on board the McCain campaign plane today. “It shows an elitism and condescension towards hardworking Americans that is nothing short of breathtaking. It is hard to imagine someone running for president who is more out of touch with average Americans.”

Schmidt said Obama’s remarks hit the “heart and soul of this country” and predicted Obama would have difficulty connecting with voters. “I think people will resent it and be very angry about it because that is not how most Americans view themselves. That’s now how most Americans view their lives in terms of practicing their faith or exercising their Second Amendment rights or having a desire to secure the borders in the country,” he explained.

When Obama later defended his remarks to voters in Indiana, a McCain spokesman fired back, “Instead of apologizing to small town Americans for dismissing their values, Barack Obama arrogantly tried to spin his way out of his outrageous San Francisco remarks. Only an elitist who attributes religious faith and gun ownership to bitterness would think that tax cuts for the rich include families who make $75,000 per year. Only an elitist would say that people vote their values only out of frustration. Barack Obama thinks he knows your hopes and fears better than you do. You can’t be more out of touch than that.”