THE AD: "Imagine," 30-second television commercial
PRODUCER: National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund
WHERE TO SEE IT: Cable television and above. RATING: 1 on a scale from 0 (misleading) to 10 (truthful)
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ANALYSIS:
This ad by gun rights advocates is loosely based on a 2003 crime in suburban Chicago. Someone stole a set of house keys in a posh neighborhood. Later, the keys were used to enter the home. But, the burglar was shot multiple times by the homeowner.
Under a village ordinance banning handguns, the man was fined $750. The state legislature passed a bill that said such local gun bans could not be enforced when the gun was being used for self-defense. Sen. Barack Obama voted against the bill.
The independent group factcheck.org says this NRA ad is misleading because it stretches the truth. Yes, Obama voted to uphold enforcement of local gun bans. But, he did nothing that could be characterized as denying a citizen's right to self-protection. And, the ad producers exaggerated details of the break-in, probably for political drama.
The ad does not address a campaign pledge from Obama that he will uphold the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. Incidentally, after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a local gun ban in Washington D.C. this summer, the suburban Chicago town repealed its ban.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, October 29, 2008 READ ARTICLE
The National Rifle Association's misleading attacks on Obama continue. A new ad shows a terrified woman grabbing a gun after an intruder smashes his way into her home. It accuses Obama of voting repeatedly for a measure that would "make you the criminal" in such cases, and voting to "deny citizens the right of self-protection."
The NRA says the incident depicted is "a true story." Not quite.
The actual 2003 burglary didn't involve a woman, and it didn't become violent until the male homeowner went downstairs and started firing before calling police.
F: To the National Rifle Association for its ad campaign twisting Barack Obama’s position on the Second Amendment beyond recognition. The NRA cooked up almost out of whole cloth an Obama “10 Point Plan to ‘Change’ the Second Amendment” that runs almost entirely counter to the candidate’s position. Truth in campaign ad sites operated by PolitiFact, run by the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly, and at The Washington Post, slammed the campaign. The Post gave the effort a rating of “Three Pinocchios,’’ which translates to ads containing “Significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions,’’ while PolitiFact branded it with the “Pants on Fire’’ designation. For the record, this newspaper supports the Second Amendment and the rights of individuals to own firearms and recognizes the long tradition of hunting in these mountains. We’d also add people can feel free to vote against Obama, but ought to be making that decision on facts, not fairy tales. We would also point out this stunt was pulled by the NRA and not the McCain campaign.
Asheville Citizen-Times, September 29, 2008 READ ARTICLE
The day the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the D.C. gun ban, leading gun control advocates dialed into a nationwide conference call to coordinate how the movement should frame its reaction to the media.
Listening in was Mary McFate, a longtime board member of a Pennsylvania gun safety group. Although McFate had been a familiar face in gun safety circles for more than a decade, the other activists on the line were unaware that she once had a career as a corporate spy infiltrating activist groups.
"Now I learn that Barack Obama supports a huge new tax on my guns and ammo."
--Karl Rusch, National Rifle Association "Hunter" video, September 22, 2008.
The National Rifle Association has opened fire on Barack Obama for allegedly supporting a "huge new tax" on gun owners. The charge is contained in a series of new TV ads attacking the Democratic presidential candidate for his "anti-gun" stance. While it is clear that Obama is no friend of the NRA, the tax hike charge rests on very flimsy evidence. There are other problems with the ads as well.
In an ad titled "Hunter," aired Monday, September 22, the National Rifle Association asserts that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama has voted to ban common ammunition and supports banning shotguns and rifles used by hunters. "Now I learn that Barack Obama supports a huge new tax on my guns and ammo," the narrator of the ad says. "If you can believe it, he also supports a ban on the shotguns and rifles most of us use for hunting."
Get the facts after the jump!
The Facts
On his campaign Web site, Obama says he respects the Second Amendment right to bear arms and "will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport and use guns." As CNN reported, Obama's running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, told supporters at a Virginia rally on Saturday, September 20, "I guarantee you, Barack Obama ain't taking my shotguns. So don't buy that malarkey. They're going to start peddling that to you. I've got two and if he tries to fool with my Beretta, he's got a problem."
A National Rifle Associationadvertising campaign distorts Obama's position on gun control beyond recognition.
The NRA is circulating printed material and running TV ads making unsubstantiated claims that Obama plans to ban use of firearms for home defense, ban possession and manufacture of handguns, close 90 percent of gun shops and ban hunting ammunition.
Much of what the NRA passes off as Obama's "10 Point Plan to 'Change' the Second Amendment" is actually contrary to what he has said throughout his campaign: that he "respects the constitutional rights of Americans to bear arms" and "will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns."
Earlier this week, ABC News reported that the McCain campaign was seeking to distance itself from adviser James Jay Baker, a onetime NRA official and current lobbyist for the gun rights group, who is reportedly a member of McCain's "kitchen cabinet." Questioned by ABC, the campaign played down his involvement, describing him as a "high level volunteer."
It stands to reason why the campaign would want to draw a wide berth around Baker. Until 2002, Baker was the executive director of the NRA's lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action. During his tenure, the ILA engaged the services of a now defunct private security firm, Beckett Brown, which specialized in spying on activist groups. Beckett Brown's point of contact at ILA was Baker's deputy, Patrick O'Malley. O'Malley also served as an NRA contact for Mary Lou Sapone, who, as Mother Jones reported in July, is a freelance spy who infiltrated the gun control movement from more than a decade on behalf of the gun lobby. When we contacted Baker seeking comment on Sapone's work for the NRA, he said, "I don't have anything to say about any vendors at the NRA." And while maintaining that he had no knowledge of any efforts to penetrate the gun control movement while he was at the NRA, he added: "We got information from whatever sources we can." The NRA has refused to comment on the Sapone story, declining to explain any possible relationship between the ILA and Sapone.
NRA Allegedly Hired Spy to Pose as Gun Control Activist
A Republican political operative considered part of the McCain campaign's "kitchen cabinet" oversaw a National Rifle Association lobbying campaign that allegedly hired a spy to infiltrate gun control groups, according to Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
James Jay Baker served as executive director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) in the late 1990s when it allegedly hired a woman to pose as a gun control activist and funnel information back to the NRA.
A McCain campaign spokesperson said Baker was only a "high level volunteer" for the campaign.
Maybe it's a compliment for gun-control groups to have been spied upon by so formidable an adversary as the National Rifle Association.
That doesn't make it any less despicable, though, for an active volunteer in the gun-control movement in Pennsylvania and elsewhere to work as a paid spy for the NRA.
The volunteer known as Mary McFate sat on the board of the CeaseFirePA gun-control group and worked with other gun-control efforts in the state for several years. She ran unsuccessfully for the board of the nation's premier gun-control group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
But Mother Jones magazine reported recently that McFate's real name is Mary Lou Sapone. The magazine contends that Sapone was paid to snoop for the NRA by a Maryland security firm, and that, in 1990, she'd done a similar con job by infiltrating the animal-rights movement on behalf of a surgical-equipment company.
Philadelphia Inquirer, August 14, 2008 READ ARTICLE
The normally hyperaggressive pro-gun lobby, the National Rifle Association, is remarkably quiet about recent news reports that it used a spy to infiltrate organizations that push for gun control.
"No comment" is all the NRA will offer about the story, first in Mother Jones magazine, that named Mary McFate, a.k.a. Mary Lou Sapone (her married name), as a paid consultant to the NRA who spent years working her way inside such groups as CeaseFire PA and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, to ferret out their plans and strategies.
"It sounds like a bad TV movie, but it also sounds like it's real," said Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke. "I've been in politics most of my life and I'm used to dirty tricks, but to have this kind of spy, a mole, is shocking and appalling."
Please visit our Web site, Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence for more information on how the Brady Campaign is fighting for sensible gun laws to protect
you, your family, and your community.
