The country’s largest pro-gun rights group is lending a helping hand to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in his quest for the Oval Office, spending millions of dollars in over a month worth of commercials.
The National Rifle Association’s political committee, the NRA Political Victory Fund, has spent nearly $3 million to reserve airtime for TV commercials from the beginning of September through the middle of October, according to the latest Kanter Media political ad tracker reports.
Television ads will begin the week of Sept. 5 and continue through Oct. 18 in Ohio, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.
The NRA has been a close ally of Trump’s, especially in advertising. The group began supporting Trump via television ads well before Trump aired his own campaign ads, and has been one of Trump’s biggest spenders during this election cycle. If the group’s spending stays on track, it will spend around $8 million in presidential commercials before the election season is over.
The NRA has also been quick to criticize Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton for her policies on guns, unveiling an ad earlier this month criticizing the former Secretary of State.
“She's one of the wealthiest women in politics. Combined income: $30 million. Tours the world in private jets. Protected by armed guards for 30 years,” the ad says. “But she doesn't believe in your right to keep a gun at home for self-defense. She's an out-of-touch hypocrite. And she'd leave you defenseless.”
That ad and other anti-Clinton ads are a direct response to Clinton’s stance on guns. Clinton has repeatedly challenged America’s gun lobby, wanting to take guns away from violent criminals. Her positions have put her at odds with the NRA, and called for NRA members to “form a different organization” and take away the Second Amendment from what she calls “extremists.”
Those comments haven’t sat well with the NRA, which hasn’t wasted time attacking the Democratic nominee for what she said.
“Hillary Clinton has supported the concept of confiscating firearms from law-abiding citizens,” said Chris W. Cox, chairman of NRA's Political Victory Fund. “Despite what she says to try and get elected, she would stack the Supreme Court with anti-gun justices who would overturn our fundamental right of self-protection. So it is not an understatement to say that the future of American freedom is at stake in November.”
The NRA’s support of Trump isn’t a total surprise, as the group typically supports conservative candidates. Trump himself has campaigned on a platform of pro-Second Amendment, rejecting calls for stricter gun control laws while encouraging the national right to carry.
“It’s been said that the Second Amendment is America’s first freedom,” reads Trump’s site. “That’s because the Right to Keep and Bear Arms protects all our other rights. We are the only country in the world that has a Second Amendment. Protecting that freedom is imperative.”
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
