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The Fake “Gun Rights Group” Supporting Obama
Apr 16th, 2008 by Bob Owens
Cross-posted at Confederate Yankee:
ABC News reports that Barack Obama has collected the endorsement of a guns rights group, the American Hunters and Shooters Association:
“Sen. Obama will be a strong voice an unabashed voice for America’s hunters and shooters and it is with great pleasure that we endorse his candidacy,” President of the Association Ray Schoenke said, citing Obama’s commitment to the traditions of gun ownership.
Schoenke said they had reached out to the Obama campaign several weeks ago to offer their support – but the announcement wasn’t made public until today. Schoenke added that the timing amid the controversy was important.
“We believe recent attacks on Sen. Obama’s stand on the 2nd amendment and his commitment to the hunting and shooting heritages are unfair.”
Actually, it is Obama’s record on firearms that is unfair to Americans, but don’t expect Ray Schoenke to know much about gun rights, even if the Daily Kos diarist is the President of the American Hunters and Shooters Association (AHSA).
Schoenke, a failed Democratic candidate for governor of Maryland, has donated thousands to Handgun Control, Inc, a virulent anti-gun organization that was the forerunner of Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence. He has donated tens of thousands more to anti-gun Democratic politicians including Ted Kennedy.
AHSA executive director Robert Ricker has testified as a paid witness against the gun industry and consults for several anti-gun groups, and John Rosenthal, President of the AHSA Foundation, is a former member of Sarah Brady’s Handgun Control, Inc, and is leader of Stop Handgun Violence, a Massachusetts anti-gun group that has contributed to that state’s intolerant anti-gun laws.
Just as Obama’s record of claiming he is in favor of the Second Amendment even as he pushes for gun bans is dishonest, so is this endorsement from a trojan horse gun control organization masquerading as a group that respects American’s rights to life and liberty.
Update: SayUncle examined this group earlier this year in greater detail.