http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/09/nra-hillary-right-trust-obama-guns/NRA: Hillary Was Right, You Can't Trust Obama With Your Guns
The National Rifle Association plans a new print advertisement criticizing Barack Obama's positions on gun issues using former rival Hillary Clinton's words
WASHINGTON -- The National Rifle Association is turning to Hillary Rodham Clinton to bolster its criticism of Barack Obama's positions on gun issues.
The NRA's Political Victory Fund planned a national newspaper ad Thursday reviving a Clinton mailing that accused Obama of waffling on gun issues. Clinton's campaign sent the mailing when the New York senator was challenging Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. It accuses Obama of changing his statements on gun issues to try to fit the audience he was addressing.
"Hillary was right: You can't trust Obama with your guns," says the NRA political action committee's ad, scheduled to run in USA Today. The PAC has spent at least $2.3 million on anti-Obama efforts, including more than $100,000 on the new USA Today ad.
The NRA ad includes a reproduction of Clinton's mailing, which mentioned Obama's comment at an April fundraiser in San Francisco that some small-town voters bitter about lost jobs "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."
"We believe that he's trying to fog the issue and confuse the voter, and he says he's for the Second Amendment while he votes to run the firearms industry and the Second Amendment out of business," Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press.
Clinton spokeswoman Kathleen Strand said the senator did not approve the NRA's use of her campaign mailing.
Obama has said people have the right to lawfully bear arms and "there's nothing inconsistent with also saying we can institute some commonsense gun laws so that we don't have kids being shot on the streets of cities like Chicago."
"Senator Obama firmly believes that the Second amendment protects the individual right to bear arms and that he will respect the tradition of gun ownership in this country, which is why he received the endorsement of the American Hunters and Shooters Association," Obama campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said. The association calls itself a "mainstream group of hunters" and says it supports safe and responsible gun ownership.
On Thursday, the NRA said it is endorsing John McCain despite differences on some issues. LaPierre said Wednesday that the NRA would "be foolish to overlook the vast areas of agreement" it has with John McCain
