For those who may have forgotten, Barack Obama reminded many last week what made him such a polarizing president. In a Time magazine essay commending student gun control activists, Obama resorted to his typical name-calling and false statements.
The former President sympathized with students who “see the NRA and its allies—whether mealymouthed [sic] politicians or mendacious commentators peddling conspiracy theories—as mere shills for those who make money selling weapons of war to whoever can pay.” Trump has never used even remotely similar language to attack gun control proponents.
Obama complained, “The Parkland, Fla., students don’t have the kind of lobbyists or big budgets for attack ads that their opponents do.”
In fact, it is the gun control groups who have the big dollars. In 2016, according to OpenSecrets.org, the NRA spent almost $3.2 million on lobbying and another $1.1 million on donations to federal candidates running in that election cycle. By contrast, over that same period, Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety spent $1.4 million lobbying and Bloomberg himself gave almost $24 million in direct donations to federal candidates. Bloomberg also easily outspent the NRA on state and local elections. He spent $28 million just on two state gun control ballot initiatives.
Contrary to Obama’s characterization of these students as disadvantaged, they easily spent over $9 million for their March 24 “March for Our Lives” event. They still have several million dollars left over. No airline has ever given free flights to NRA members, but Delta did just that for students attending the “March for Our Lives.” There were also all sorts of other in-kind donations from free hotel rooms, Lyft car rides, and food.
But Obama’s claims regarding crime are even more troubling. He writes: “No developed country endures a homicide rate like ours, a difference explained largely by pervasive accessibility to guns.” He is wrong on a few fronts. – READ MORE
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