Hillary Clinton’s pro-gun control rhetoric–combined with her unabashed opposition to the District of Columbia v Heller (2008) decision–come together to convince many gun owners and “gun rights advocates” that she supports opening the door to city-by-city handgun bans again.
In fact, the Guardian suggests Clinton’s claims to support the Second Amendment are undercut by the fact that she is virulently anti-gun. After all, the Heller decision was simply a reaffirmation of the Founding Father’s conviction that America’s have an individual right to keep and bear arms, but Clinton believes the Supreme Court got it wrong.
According to The Guardian, Clinton’s opposition to Heller has gun owners fearful that “she will re-open the door for cities and states to ban private ownership of handguns.” And such a fear is not unfounded when you consider the fact that the Heller ruling overturned the Washington, D.C. handgun ban.
Moreover, Chicago v McDonald (2010) followed, overturning the handgun ban in Chicago as well.
Clinton opposes both decisions.
On August 23, author and Conservative Leaders for Education chairman William Bennett warned:
[Heller and McDonald] were each decided by just one vote. Given the opportunity, a liberal Court wouldn’t hesitate to overturn those decisions. We got a glimpse of this in June, when the notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Second Amendment does not permit the public to carry concealed firearms. A liberal Supreme Court would certainly uphold this ruling and continue to hack away at the rest of the Second Amendment.
The Guardian article indicates gun owners have no reason to reject warnings like the one issued by Bennett, and this is largely because Clinton and/or members of her campaign have said as much themselves.
Because of this, the Guardian wonders aloud “why Clinton has taken a more aggressive line in questioning Heller than mainstream gun control groups have done.” And they point out that gun owners are not fooled when Clinton tries to sell herself as pro-Second Amendment at this point in the race. They quote UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, who said, “If you were to say, ‘I support abortion rights, but I’m for overturning Roe v Wade and Planned Parenthood v Casey,’ then what kind of abortion rights are you supporting?”
Volokh’s point: Clinton opposes Heller, McDonald, “assault weapon” ownership, “high capacity” magazine ownership, and gun sales as they have been done since 1791. It is not logical to believe someone who holds these positions can also be pro-Second Amendment.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of “Bullets with AWR Hawkins,” a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.