Clinton's Latest Op-Ed Exploits Victims in Push for Gun Control

The New York Daily News published an op-ed by presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Easter Sunday. In her piece, she is sadly all too eager to splash young victims across the pages of the paper as if they were her own personal badges of honor:

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Last November in Chicago, I met with a group of mothers from across the country who have lived that nightmare — moms of children like Jordan Davis from Jacksonville, Florida, who was 17 when he died; Trayvon Martin from Sanford, Florida, also 17; and Hadiya Pendleton from Chicago, just 15 when she was killed. They were just doing what kids do: playing music, walking home from the store, talking with friends in a park in broad daylight — and they all ended up shot to death.

Ms. Clinton, who is currently ducking responsibility for her part in Benghazi, the six billion dollars that went missing under her supervision in the State Department and her involvement in the classified email scandal, thinks she is capable of ending gun violence if America would just put her back into the White House:

There are some common-sense steps we can take that are fully consistent with the law and Constitution to finally begin to tackle this scourge.

First, we need to repeal the law that gives the gun industry sweeping liability protections, so companies that make and sell guns can be held accountable when their products kill people. When the NRA pushed that misguided law through Congress, they said that preventing lawsuits was their top legislative priority. Now it’s making it harder for families who lost children in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, to sue Bushmaster for marketing its AR-15 assault rifle to civilians. As President, I’ll stand with the families victimized by guns, not the corporations that profit from them.

Second, we should implement comprehensive background checks. President Obama recently issued several executive orders designed to strengthen this federal system. Surveys have shown that even 85% of gun owners favor these checks. And it’s hard to believe that we still allow people on the no-fly list to purchase firearms. I think it’s pretty simple: If it’s too dangerous for you to be allowed on an airplane, it’s too dangerous for you to own a gun.

Third, we need to close the so-called “Charleston loophole.” Right now, a person with an arrest record can walk into a gun store to buy a gun, and if their background check isn’t completed within three business days, they can walk out with a firearm. It makes absolutely no sense. More than 55,000 gun sales that would otherwise have been blocked have been allowed to proceed because of this loophole. One of them was the gun bought by the white supremacist who murdered nine parishioners at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston last year.

It may be hard to believe, but this loophole isn’t the result of some accidental oversight in the law. It was created by a stand-alone amendment designed and written by the gun lobby.

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Taking the opportunity to throw her republican counterparts under the bus, Hillary also continues to peddle the notion that the NRA makes people agree with them, rather than acknowledging that collectively, we are the NRA.

If the NRA thinks you’re doing a good job, that’s a pretty good indication that something’s very wrong.

Of course, all of the Republican candidates march in lockstep with the gun lobby.

Donald Trump has called the NRA’s efforts to stop gun safety reforms “invaluable.” He has vowed to “un-sign” all of President Obama’s executive actions to strengthen background checks. And he has pledged that on his very first day in office he would override laws that prevent people from carrying guns into schools.

When he isn’t cooking bacon on the barrel of an automatic rifle, Ted Cruz is earning his lifetime NRA “A+ rating” in the Senate by voting against comprehensive background checks. He even signed a letter pledging to “oppose any legislation” to address gun violence.

It’s time we stand up to the Republicans and the gun lobby and stand with parents who have lost their children to gun violence.

Rife with indignation, Ms. Clinton’s op-ed continues to place the blame for gun violence and lay the deaths of children at the feet of the NRA, Republicans and law-abiding gun owners.

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