By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Almost as if to confirm everything said about her by a leading gun rights advocate, Democratic presidential candicate Hillary Rodham Clinton has announced plans for tighter restrictions on gun rights if she is elected president, including the use of “executive action” if she can’t get Congress to roll over.
The move was essentially received as a declaration of war against gun owners and the firearms industry. She will “push to repeal” the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a federal statute that prohibits junk liability lawsuits against firearms manufacturers and dealers, according to NBC News. She will also call for “expanded background checks, and “for a crackdown on the sale of guns on the Internet and at gun shows,” according to published reports on Fox News and ABC.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb
This came days after a lone gunman opened fire on a rural southern Oregon community college campus, killing nine people and wounding several others before a shootout with police. He ultimately killed himself.
Clinton, with a record of support for any manner of gun control, essentially reinforced a statement put forth by Alan Gottlieb, head of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms that she will energize the nation’s gun owners and get them to the polls.
“Just as it has been for the past seven years, since Barack Obama was elected in 2008, a Clinton nomination in 2016 will guarantee continued strong gun sales and expanded gun ownership,” Gottlieb contended in a press release one week ago. “Even among those who favor expanded background checks there is strong sentiment for protecting gun rights rather than controlling gun ownership.
“Between now and November 2016,” he predicted, “we expect Hillary Clinton to try to stigmatize and marginalize gun owners, but in fact she will energize those millions of law-abiding citizens whose votes she fears the most. That’s why we’re grateful for her campaign rhetoric.”
Perhaps by no small coincidence, Clinton’s declaration came at the same time Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor for the Washington Post, declared his support for total gun prohibition. In an opinion headlined “A Gun-Free Society,” Hiatt suggested this country should “learn from other developed nations, which believe that only the military and law enforcers, when necessary, should be armed.”
And in the Seattle Times, perennial anti-gun columnist Jerry Large contended that we should make “gun ownership at least as hard as getting a driver’s license.” He wants do “adopt stricter measures” that regulate the exercise of the right to keep and bear arms.
It is 13 months until the 2016 election. Between now and then, gun owners who have habitually sat on the sidelines need to get in the game, according to many speakers at the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix.
