The presumptive 2016 Democrat front-runner for the presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, is behaving like…Hillary Clinton. She’s nothing if not predictable, and has a long rhetorical trail, particularly where gun control is involved. Equally predictably, the legacy media are doing their best to protect her from herself and her record. From Breitbart.com:

“On May 7th CNN’s John King played a video of Hillary Clinton  saying, ‘We have to rein in what has become [an] almost article of faith, that anybody can have a gun anywhere, [at] any time.’

King quickly added, ‘She’s talking in the context of mental health,’ but then he expressed obvious concern that this soundbite is going to make a great anti-Hillary commercial…

…Hillary was not talking about mental health issues at this point  but about ‘fully licensed’ and ‘fully validated’ gun owners. She  said so herself.”

CNN’s Peter Hamby did his best to help Clinton but she was so obvious, so Hillary, he had no choice but to observe that Clinton’s anti-gun record was “going to be something of an issue for her I think.” If any media outlet bothers to review its own coverage of Clinton, Hamby’s parsing will be the understatement of the 2016 race. As much as she will try to present herself as a moderate, seeking only “sensible,” “common sense” gun control measures, her record speaks loudly otherwise.

Her 2008 presidential run provides a preview of her 2016 tactics. McClatchy’s David Lightman explained in a March, 2008 article: 

“When Supreme Court justices debate the legality of the District of Columbia’s ban on handguns in coming weeks, their file will include a legal brief from Vice President Dick Cheney, Arizona   Sen. John McCain and 54 other senators asking that the law be overturned.

But they won’t find anything from Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York or Barack Obama of Illinois. They didn’t sign the rival brief from other members of Congress who back the   tough handgun restrictions.

The Democratic presidential candidates’ silence is part of a pattern. For years, the national party has downplayed its historic sympathy for gun control for fear that emphasizing it would be politically costly.”

Fortunately for the cause of liberty, the Supreme Court didn’t listen to Clinton and affirmed the right to keep and bear arms as a fundamental, individual right in the landmark Heller decision.   As much as Clinton and most other democrats avoid strident, public anti-gun advocacy, their true colors bleed through. Lightman again:

“A rival brief, signed by 18 Democratic members of Congress,   counters that lawmakers long have had the right to regulate — and ban — ‘the use and possession of certain weapons.’

Clinton has a long history as an outspoken supporter of tough gun-control measures, but she, too, has moderated in recent months…

At a January debate, she called herself a ‘political realist, and I understand that the political winds are very powerful against doing enough to try to get guns off the street.”

That is, Clinton is a “political realist” (read “political opportunist”) willing to say whatever is necessary for any audience to advance her political fortunes. However, let no one doubt Hillary Clinton’s stereotypical anti-liberty beliefs. Like Barack Obama, she rhetorically fully supports the Second Amendment, but she is all in for “sensible,” and “common sense” restrictions of the kind that have made President Obama the most effective inadvertent gun salesman in history.

A brief summary of her statements and stances—by no means exhaustive—may be gathered through nothing more taxing than a brief Google search. From On The Issues: 

On making self-defense in the home essentially impossible (Good morning America, 06-04-1999):

“If you own a gun… make sure it’s locked up and stored without the ammunition. In fact, make it stored where the ammunition is stored separately. We’ve made some progress in the last several years with the Brady Bill and some of the bans on assault weapons, but we have a lot of work to do.”

Mrs. Clinton, speaking to children at the South Side Middle School in Nassau County, July 15, 1999:

“We will not make progress on a sensible gun control agenda unless the entire American public gets behind it. It is really  important for each of you [kids] to make sure you stay away from guns. If you have guns in your home, tell your parents to keep them away from you and your friends and your little brothers and sisters.”

On gun registration and licensing (CNN.com) June 2, 2000:

“Hillary Rodham Clinton offered her support for a legislative proposal to license handguns. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer, would require anyone who wants to purchase  a gun to obtain a state-issued photo gun license. ‘I stand in support of this common sense legislation to license everyone who wishes to purchase a gun.’ ‘I also believe that every new handgun sale or transfer should be registered in a national registry, such as Chuck is proposing.”

Clinton twice voted against the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (March 2, 2004 and July 29, 2005) which prohibited lawsuits against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers of guns and ammunition for so-called “gun violence” and the misuse of their products by third parties about whom they had no knowledge or control.

On how to deal with “gun violence” affecting African-American men (NAACP Presidential Primary Forum, July 12, 2007):

“I think it’s important to remember that the crime rate was  driven down, & gun violence was driven down in the 1990s because of a combination of policies, like 100,000 police on the  street and getting assault weapons off the street…Assault  weapons are back on the street. We’ve got to go and do what  works again. In addition to having policies that will get guns off the street…”

On the DC handgun ban that gave rise to the Heller decision, one of the few times a progressive has given lip service to anything resembling federalism (Philadelphia primary debate, April 16, 2008):

“I want to give local communities the authority over determining how to keep their citizens safe. This case you’re referring to is before the Supreme Court.”

“I support sensible regulation that is consistent with the constitutional right to own and bear arms.”

The New York Times (May 9, 1999) featured Clinton’s emotional appeal for gun control:

“Stepping up the Clinton Administration’s campaign against gun violence, Hillary Rodham Clinton used an emotional White House ceremony today to call on Americans to press Congress to ‘’buck the gun lobby’’ and pass several gun control measures.”

“The Senate is to begin debate next week on a number of gun control measures, some of which mirror proposals offered recently by President Clinton. ‘The senators need to hear from all of us,’ Mrs. Clinton said. She urged voters ‘’to give them the  encouragement to do what they know is right and to remind    them that there are many, many millions of American voters and citizens who will stand behind political leaders who are brave enough to buck the gun lobby, wherever that may take us, so that they will vote for the measures that we know will save lives.”

The NYT also noted that Hillary:

“….has also been more forceful than the President in directly taking on the powerful gun lobby in the aftermath of the Littleton killings.”

In a June 07, 2011 opinion piece, Forbes.com noted: 

“Although professing to support the Second Amendment during her presidential election bid, Hillary Clinton is not generally   known as a gun rights enthusiast [there’s an understatement of the century]. She has been a long-time activist for federal firearms licensing and registration, and a vigorous opponent of state Right-to-Carry laws. As a New York senator she ranked among the National Rifle Association’s worst ‘F’-rated gun banners who voted to support the sort of gunpoint disarmament that marked New Orleans‘ rogue police actions    against law-abiding gun owners in the anarchistic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.”

In a July 10, 2012 op-ed, former Clinton advisor Dick Morris noted that as Secretary of State, Clinton had gun control goals that transcended the borders of the United States: 

“Without much fanfare and with as little publicity as possible,   Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will go to New York City to sign the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), now in the final stages of negotiation at the U.N. The treaty marks the beginning of an international crusade to impose gun controls on the United States and repeal our Second Amendment rights.

The ATT is nominally geared toward the purpose of stopping international arms sales to gangs, criminals and violent groups.  But, as is so often the case with U.N. treaties, this is merely a convenient facade behind which to conceal the ATT’s true intent:  to force gun control on the United States.”

From 1999 to the present by these few examples alone, Hillary Clinton is revealed, primarily by her own words and actions, as a dedicated progressive gun grabber. Too many conservatives make the mistake of thinking the Second Amendment secured, but Progressive politicians waited and schemed patiently for a century to impose Obamacare, the Constitution be damned. They never took their eyes off the prize. They will do no less to obliterate the Second Amendment, and Hillary Clinton will be at the forefront of “sensible” attempts to diminish liberty and to increase the power of the state.

The only relationship Clinton’s anti-freedom philosophy has to “mental health,” is a reflection on any who think her a “sensible” defender of individual liberty, in 1999 or now.

Mike’s Home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.