BURLINGTON, N.C. — The Founding Fathers “might have been bitter about being under the thumb of the British,” former Rep. Bob Barr said Saturday, after reading a transcript of Sen. Barack Obama’s statement suggesting that economic bitterness causes small-town voters to “cling to guns or religion.”

Obama’s analysis is “way off base, it’s awfully simplistic and very arrogant,” said Barr, a board member of the National Rifle Association. “I don’t think he understands people…. People get bitter, so that’s why they support the Second Amendment? Or that’s why they support the First Amendment? That’s what he seems to be saying.”

A former Republican who recently formed an exploratory committee to seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination, Barr is attending the North Carolina Libertarian Convention here, as is ex-Democrat Mike Gravel, another LP presidential candidate.

Calling Obama’s remarks “absolute nonsense,” Barr said: “People in American don’t support the Second Amendment because they’re bitter. It’s because they love freedom and they understand freedom — apparently a lot better than Senator Obama does.”