‘twas to be expected, of course. The National Rifle Association’s ads attacking Hillary Clinton’s stance on regulating firearms are as bogus as the pronouncements of these shills for the gun manufacturers have been in the past. But truthfulness isn’t the point. These ads serve a dual purpose—stirring up gun owners to vote for Trump, who the NRA’s political arm has endorsed, and boosting ammunition sales.
In the October ad (which the NRA plans to spend $6.5 million on, its largest buy of the 2016 election), Kristi McMains explains how she was attacked in a parking garage last January by a knife-wielding man who tore at her clothes and attempted to stab her. She managed to pull out her pistol and shoot her assailant several times. He survived.
In the ad below, she says: “Every woman has a right to defend herself with a gun if she chooses. Hillary Clinton disagrees with that. Don’t let politicians take away your right to own a gun. Donald Trump supports my right to own a gun.”
Every woman—indeed, every person—has a right to self-defense. But Hillary Clinton does not disagree with that. She has repeatedly said that she, unlike NRA extremists, supports universal background checks for would-be gun buyers, something polls have consistently shown that 85-93 percent of Americans also support. That includes the majority of self-identified gun owners and the majority of self-identified NRA members. Federal background checks now only apply to sales made by licensed dealers, not to private sales. Some states, however (California and Colorado among them), require background checks for all sales.
In another ad that appeared in September, a woman is shown unlocking a gun safe in her bedroom to get to a pistol as her home is invaded. The narrator says: “Hillary Clinton could take away her right to self-defense.” (You can watch both ads below.)
And in August, yet another ad claimed Clinton “doesn’t believe in your right to keep a gun at home for self-defense.”
Flat-out lies. More than one fact checker has noted the ads’ phony claims. Nothing Clinton has said or proposed comes close to saying a person has no right to keep a gun at home.
Glenn Kessler at The Washington Post’s “Fact Checker” column noted of the August ad: “This is a classic example of a fear-mongering ad based on little evidence but leaps of logic.” And that’s being kind.
Clinton’s campaign website clearly lays out her stance, which she has repeated in interviews: supporting comprehensive background checks of all sales; holding dealers and manufacturers legally responsible if they endanger Americans; “keep[ing] guns out of the hands of domestic abusers, other violent criminals, and the severely mentally ill;” and keeping military-style weapons off the streets. Not a single word about denying people the right to defend themselves with a firearm.