Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is apparently trying anything she can to gather support for her 2020 presidential campaign.
During a town hall hosted by the To Share Brewing, the New York lawmaker bizarrely claimed that gun manufacturers oppose universal background checks because they want to sell guns to kids, those who are mentally ill, and “someone on the terror watch-list.”
Her off-the-walls comments were in response to a woman in the audience asking Gillibrand about her position on gun control.
Gillibrand began her response by trashing the National Rifle Association, which she claimed opposes “common sense gun reform.”
https://twitter.com/mrwalsh__/status/1107733552836366339
Gillibrand then claimed that gun manufacturers “only care about gun sales.”
“Because the gun manufacturers only care about gun sales, they oppose the common sense reform that can save lives,” Gillibrand said.
“They want to oppose universal background checks because they want to sell an assault rifle to a teenager in a Walmart or to someone on the terror watch list or to someone whose gravely mentally ill with a violent background or to someone with a criminal conviction for a violent crime,” she added.
She continued, “They want to sell those weapons, that is why they oppose universal background checks.”
The New York progressive went on to suggest that gun manufacturers only oppose gun reform because they want to sell guns and accessories “no matter what, to anybody.”
Soon after her comments caught fire on Twitter, the Washington Free Beacon’s Stephen Gutowski tweeted that almost everything Gillibrand claimed was completely false.
She talks about needing universal background checks because gun manufacturers want to sell assault rifles, new sales of which were banned in 1986, to teens at Walmart, which is already required under federal law to conduct background checks on all gun sales.
— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) March 18, 2019
“Senator Gillibrand giving a speech about gun control in C-SPAN right now and, I’m not exaggerating, everything she said was factually inaccurate. She doesn’t understand how the background check system works. Gets assault rifles wrong. Doesn’t understand interstate gun sales,” Gutowski wrote.
He added: “She talks about needing universal background checks because gun manufacturers want to sell assault rifles, new sales of which were banned in 1986, to teens at Walmart, which is already required under federal law to conduct background checks on all gun sales.”
Gillibrand’s comments come at a time when she is struggling mightily to gain support for her presidential bid.
According to the latest polling data from Monmouth, Gillibrand is almost dead last in polling for the 2020 Democratic primary.
The polls reveal that former Vice President Joe Biden, who has not officially announced whether he will run for president, is leading the pack at 28 percent.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is in a close second at 25 percent, with Sen. Kamala Harris at 10 percent, Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 8 percent, Robert “Beto” O’Rourke at 6 percent, Sen. Cory Booker at 5 percent, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar at 3 percent.
Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sen. Julian Castro are tied at 1 percent, and Sen. Tulsi Gabbard and Gillibrand are tied at 0 percent.
Gillibrand’s campaign may be over before it even truly got started.
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