[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i.l.cnn.net/cnn/2008/POLITICS/04/15/candidates.guns/art.guns.ap.jpg caption=" Guns are on display at Ace Guns in Washington, Pennsylvania."]WASHINGTON (CNN) - The battle over the word "bitter" between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has sparked a new look at the candidates and their stance on the Second Amendment.
At a closed-door fundraiser just over a week ago, the Illinois senator referred to some small-town Pennsylvanians as "bitter" people who "cling to guns and religion."
"I didn't say it as well as I should have," Obama admitted in Muncie, Indiana, on Saturday, the day after he first defended his comments, "because the truth is that these traditions that are passed on from generation to generation - those are important."