NRA says Brady ad is off-target

We have reported many times on the Brady Campaign's rush to exploit tragedy for political gain. Since its inception as the National Council to Control Handguns over 30 years ago, the group has premised its entire agenda on this kind of exploitation for political gain, and on the notion that having more gun control laws and, therefore, fewer guns, means that crime must necessarily decrease.

Since the senseless January 8 attack on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her innocent staff and constituents, anti-Second Amendment groups have been working overtime to exploit the tragedy to resurrect their political agendas. The Brady Campaign's most recent, tasteless ploy may represent a new low.

The group has coined the term "assault clip" to describe magazines that are capable of holding more than 10 rounds. They are claiming that these "assault clips" lead to more crime and should therefore be banned. This is nothing more than a rehash of the magazine bans they've been supporting for nearly two decades, but they promote it with a despicable twist.

The group's new ad shows a young male shooter on a range, shooting a pistol at silhouette targets first depicting a young girl, then a series of other innocent citizens.

The imagery is meant to support the Brady assertion that, "large capacity ammunition magazines are designed to enable shooting mass numbers of people quickly and efficiently without reloading." But in truth, the ad insults not just the intelligence of viewers, but also the good name of the millions of honest Americans who own such firearms and magazines.

Today, Americans own more semi-automatic rifles than ever before, and more self-defense handguns with standard magazines that hold more than 10 rounds than ever before. Yet despite gun ban groups' predictions, the nation's violent crime rate is at a 35-year low.

Copyright 2011, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.
This may be reproduced. It may not be reproduced for commercial purposes.