After a summer of lobbying the UN to apply the Second Amendment internationally, this week The National Rifle Association leaped into the U.S. presidential campaign with $1.3 million in anti-Obama ads.
The ads, which will be aired in Florida, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin — all battleground states — say the president is “attacking our Second Amendment rights.” A vote against Obama, the NRA says, would help “defend freedom.” The ad does not mention Romney by name.
The NRA’s decision to endorse the Republican candidate may not be all that surprising, but may seem contradictory given the candidates’ records: Romney signed a ban on assault weapons as governor of Massachusetts, while the president has signed measures allowing people to carry concealed weapons in checked bags on trains and while visiting the national parks.
Gun control advocates say the President has not done enough to prevent gun violence. In 2010, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, one of the largest gun control lobbying groups, graded Obama’s record an “F.”
