A fundraising email about a fictitious “President Obama’s Million Rifle Ban” depicted an angry President Obama with his finger pointed at Republican Senator Rand Paul — and a gun pointed at President Obama’s head.
The email, a fundraiser for the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR), is signed by Senator Rand Paul, Ron Paul’s son, and reads, “If we’re going to reverse President Obama’s Million Rifle Ban gun owners have to turn up the heat on Congress before it’s too late!” It repeats “President Obama’s Million Rifle Ban” twice in two sentences.
In fact, there is no such thing as “President Obama’s Million Rifle Ban.”
What these radical right wing groups — fueled by ludicrous reports in right wing media like World Net Daily and Fox News — are up in arms about is a 2010 report that the Bureau of Alcohol and Firearms (ATF) wrote a report stating it did not want South Korea to be given permission to export into the U.S. guns used in the Korean War, because they easily can be modified into machine guns.
Not that most of these sites will mention this.
There are an estimated 600,000 of the gun in question, the M1 Garand, not a “million.” Senator Paul is signing his name to a lie.
Stephen C. Webster of The Raw Story first reported the story. He writes:
NAGR’s website also features a second image of a gun pointing at Obama’s head, this time next to an image of Sec. of State Hillary Clinton. Sen. Paul was attached to that campaign as well — which sought to raise funds off fear over the United Nations’ small arms treaty — but unlike its smaller promotional image, the group’s main banner for that fundraiser did not feature the president’s face.
President Obama has not advocated for any form of national gun ban, and has actually signed several measures that enhance the rights of gun owners.
And adds:
“Death threats against this president are up 400 percent as compared to President Bush,†Ladd Everitt, director of communications for The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told Raw Story on Thursday. “We are living today in a supercharged, partisan political climate where threats of violence and violent rhetoric are everywhere, and you would think that anyone — anyone, no matter what their political views or disagreements with this president — would have the common sense and decency to not create a banner image for a conspiracy theory-fueled email that shows a gun pointing directly at [the president’s] head, while simultaneously preaching to folks about some ridiculous Obama gun ban that exists only in a fantasy world.â€
One internet forum poster noted:
If Obama were a Republican, he’d be praised for protecting American jobs by preventing Asian countries from dumping cheap products on the US market.
The Huffington Post, who reported on the Raw Story piece yesterday, today notes in an update:
The image housed at the website for the campaign has been changed. The rifle now points toward the head of Sen. Paul.
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