Answer: Like so much else about a race whose crossroads seem to run through Ohio, Barack Obama has framed his stand on gun rights through a Buckeye State prism.

Here's what Obama said during his acceptance speech Aug. 28 at the Democratic National Convention in Denver:

"The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than they are for those plagued by gang violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals."

It's a stand that the senator from Illinois says means that he supports an individual's right to bear arms and agrees with this summer's Supreme Court decision that a District of Columbia ban on handguns went too far.

But Obama asserted that Justice Antonin Scalia's opinion also acknowledged, "This right is not absolute and subject to reasonable regulations enacted by local communities to keep their streets safe." Obama added that he supports "common-sense laws, like closing the gun-show loophole and improving our background-check system, so that guns do not fall into the hands of terrorists or criminals."

That loophole allows people to buy firearms from unlicensed dealers at gun shows without undergoing a background check, as they would if buying from a licensed dealer. Republican nominee John McCain wants to close it, too.

The senator from Arizona greatly angered the National Rifle Association when he took a leading role in pushing to require criminal background checks on purchasers from such unlicensed dealers. That, along with his support of campaign-finance reform, earned him a 2004 grade of "C" from the NRA. The gun-rights group, however, endorsed McCain last week.

Obama and McCain apparently also agree on another issue that puts them at odds with the NRA. Both have spoken in favor of allowing the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace the sales history of guns used in crimes. The NRA supports a congressional ban on finding such information, partly because "Cities suing the gun industry, and anti-gun organizations, have sought access to confidential law-enforcement data on firearms traces."

Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said it is McCain who has taken a leadership role by co-writing legislation to close the background-check loophole. It passed the Senate but failed in the House. McCain also spoke on the Senate floor in 2004 against the ban on tracing gun-sales history, Helmke said.

However, it is Obama who was endorsed yesterday by Helmke's organization, saying the Democrat stands with it on many more issues than McCain does, including favoring a ban on assault weapons, allowing product-liability lawsuits against gun manufacturers and banning the sale of armor-piercing ammunition.

Obama has been given an "F" by the NRA, which says that he has backed handgun bans and is a "serious threat to Second Amendment liberties."

The NRA cites Obama's support of local gun bans in places such as Chicago and his 2003 vote as an Illinois state senator in favor of legislation prohibiting people from buying more than one gun a month.

Until his stands on the gun-show loophole and campaign-finance reform, McCain was with the NRA on most issues and received an "A" grade, said Andrew Arulanandam, an NRA spokesman.

"Our members look at it from a practical perspective. They see in Obama someone opposed to them every turn. They look at McCain and see a guy who has voted with them and supported gun rights most times, who they had a couple disagreements with."

Still, McCain felt the need to patch up his relations with gun-rights advocates after he nailed down the GOP nomination.

"For more than two decades, I've opposed efforts to ban guns, ban ammunition, ban magazines and dismiss gun owners as some kind of fringe group unwelcome in modern America," McCain said in May at an NRA conference in Kentucky.

Obama didn't make friends with gun-rights advocates when he famously said this year at a fundraiser in San Francisco that "bitter" voters cling to guns and religion.

In September, Obama characterized his views on guns this way, during an appearance in Pennsylvania:

"I believe in the Second Amendment, and if you are a law-abiding gun owner, you have nothing to fear from an Obama administration."

jriskind@dispatch.com