Fake "Pro-Gun" Group Endorses Most Anti-Gun Candidate

http://www.nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=3848

"Pro-Gun" Group Endorses Most Anti-Gun Candidate

Friday, April 18, 2008

As this unusual campaign season has unfolded, we've seen the candidates

ratcheting up their politically expedient rhetoric in an attempt to

distinguish themselves as the "candidate of choice" for every constituency,

while testing the far reaches of credibility in the process. We've heard

blatantly anti-gun politicians claim to be supportive of the Second

Amendment. We've seen hypocrisy, and we've heard double-speak and insults

to our intelligence.

When it comes to campaign rhetoric on the Second Amendment, we've seen a

change in the way many anti-gun politicians campaign. Rather than talk

openly about their desire to ban guns, register gun owners, and regulate

firearms sales, anti-gun politicians talk about their "support" for

sportsmen. Rather than admit they oppose the individual right protected by

the Second Amendment, they claim they "support firearm ownership for

hunting."

This is all an effort to mislead and divide the gun owning community and to

dilute gun owners' political impact. To achieve their goals new

organizations have been formed, with names designed to confuse gun owners

and hide their real agenda. The American Hunters and Shooters Association

(AHSA) is one of those groups.

As we've reported in the past, AHSA was created to provide political cover

for anti-gun politicians by allowing them to claim support from a "sportsmen's"

group. In truth, the anti-gun credentials of AHSA's leadership is well

documented. For instance, AHSA president Ray Schoenke has a long history of

giving political donations to some of the nations most anti-gun politicians,

including Al Gore, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Dianne

Feinstein, and Ted Kennedy. In 2000, Schoenke donated $5,000 to Handgun

Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign) and the Ray and Holly Schoenke

Foundation also made donations to the Brady Campaign. AHSA Board member

John Rosenthal remains the leader of Stop Handgun Violence, a Massachusetts

anti-gun group. And one of the leading organizers of AHSA is Bob Ricker,

who has served as a paid expert witness against gun manufacturers in a

number of reckless lawsuits. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

In keeping with their "pro-gun" stance, this week, AHSA did the last thing

one would expect of a pro-gun group-they endorsed Democratic hopeful Barack

Obama for President!

In a statement on the AHSA website titled "Obama: He 'gets it,'" Schoenke

announced the endorsement, saying that Senator Obama's voting record has

clearly demonstrated his commitment to the Second Amendment! Are you

kidding? Obama's hostility toward the Second Amendment is so well known and

well documented that in the 2004 elections, NRA's Political Victory Fund

(NRA-PVF) issued Obama a well-deserved "F" grade. Obama is anti-gun.

Period. And no amount of sugar coating or spin by AHSA will change that

fact.

The AHSA statement closes with the line, "Senator Obama will be a strong and

authentic voice for America's hunters and shooters and it is with great

pleasure that we endorse his candidacy." While typical of the rhetoric

coming out of AHSA, that line is nothing less than ridiculous.

AHSA would be more correctly called the "American Association for the

Protection of Anti-Gun Politicians." No gun owner or sportsman should take

the group seriously or fall prey to its carefully crafted lies and

deceptions, as clearly demonstrated by their endorsement of Barack Obama.