NRA Head Says Controversial Ad ‘Not About’ Obama’s Kids [Video]
The president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) has defended his organization’s use of President Obama’s children in a controversial internet video about placing armed guards in schools, saying “it wasn’t about the president’s daughters.”
“We believe that every parent ought to be able to be comfortable, knowing that their children are safe, and if that requires armed security, it’s as good for the working man as it is for the president,” David Keene told TODAY‘s Savannah Guthrie.
The short internet spot alleges that Obama is an “elite hypocrite” for dismissing the idea of armed guards in our nation’s schools while his two daughters are guarded by Secret Service agents.
“Are the president’s kids more important than yours?” asks the spot’s narrator. “Then why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school?”
The ad received a mixed response, with opinions encamped along predictable political lines. The White House called the NRA ad “repugnant and cowardly” and accused the group of using the president’s daughters as “pawns in a political fight.”
Keene also expressed concern over how some of Obama’s gun control measures would be enforced.
“It becomes more problematic when you talk about the farmer who buys a new shotgun and sells his old one to his neighbor over the fence, or the father who sells to the son or all those kinds of things,” he said. “The laws need to be certain. And they need to fair and fairly enforced.”
A specific proposal criticized by Keene is the one about limiting the size of ammunition magazines.
“This all sort of makes you feel good, but in fact it doesn’t do much,” Keene said. “If you are out there, and if you’re crazy, and if you’ve got a gun like this and if you’re going to shoot people with it, it takes a second or so to change the magazine.”
Here’s David Keene, president of the NRA, on TODAY:
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