As President Obama delivered his State of the Union address Tuesday, the NRA rolled out a new commercial warning that his words cannot hide the fact that his gun control objectives seek mandatory gun buybacks and gun registration.
Narrated by NRA Executive Director Chris Cox, the commercial opens by asking viewers to look below the surface:
President Obama gives a good speech and when you listen to him talk about new gun laws, you may think he sounds reasonable. But what happens when you look at the details behind the president’s policies? How would they actually work?
Cox then explains how the gun policies would work and what specific measures like an “assault weapons” ban would entail.
For example, he says: “Obama’s experts say that a gun ban, like the one being debated right now in Congress, will not work without mandatory gun buybacks. Mandatory gun buybacks–that’s government confiscation of legal firearms owned by honest citizens.”
Cox also focuses on “universal background checks,” telling viewers:
[Obama’s] own experts wrote that the effectiveness of universal background checks depends on gun registration. Requiring gun registration with the federal government? That’s an…abuse of privacy and freedom unprecedented in our [nation’s history].
After highlighting DOJ memos and various other documents to support the NRA’s position, Cox closes:
So the Obama administration believes a mandatory gun ban will not work without mandatory gun confiscation and universal background checks will not work without requiring national gun registration. Still think President Obama’s proposals sound reasonable?
The ad will run in South Dakota, Colorado, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alaska–all states with Democrat Senators facing reelection in 2014.