Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton proposed using executive action for tighter gun control restrictions on the campaign trail Monday, but during her first bid for the White House eight years ago, Mrs. Clinton fashioned herself as a pro-gun, Second Amendment supporter.
In April 2007, Mrs. Clinton looked to contrast herself from then-Sen. Barack Obama, who was caught saying some people in small towns in Pennsylvania “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them … as a way to explain their frustrations.”
“I disagree with Sen. Obama’s assertion that people in our country cling to guns and have certain attitudes about trade and immigration simply out of frustration,” Mrs. Clinton told an audience in Indiana, according to news reports at the time. “You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl.
“You know, some people now continue to teach their children and their grandchildren. It’s part of culture. It’s part of a way of life. People enjoy hunting and shooting because it’s an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter,” Mrs. Clinton said.
Mrs. Clinton cast Mr. Obama’s comments as “elitist” and “out of touch.”
“They are not reflective of the values and beliefs of Americans. Certainly not the Americans that I know — not the Americans I grew up with, not the Americans I lived with in Arkansas or represent in New York,” she said.
Mr. Obama responded in kind, chastising Mrs. Clinton for “talking like she’s Annie Oakley” and acting as if “she’s out in the duck blind every Sunday.”
• Kelly Riddell can be reached at kriddell@washingtontimes.com.
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