NRA to spend $15m on ads to defeat Hillary Clinton in key states

The pro-gun lobbyists’ fear of a Clinton presidency – and a
liberal supreme court – has outweighed any unease about
Donald Trump’s prior support for gun control

Peter Stone in Washington
Friday 16 September 2016 13.00 BST

To boost Donald Trump’s prospects of becoming president, the National Rifle Association is poised to pour more than $15m into ads in several battleground states to defeat Hillary Clinton, the most vocal pro-gun-control presidential candidate in years, according to an NRA board member.

The NRA has already plowed almost $6.5m into TV spots in several key states bashing Clinton and one NRA board member told the Guardian that the pro-gun goliath will spend “multiples” of that figure by election day on the presidential contest.

Next week, the NRA is slated to launch another seven-figure round of TV ads in Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Last month, the NRA made a $3m ad buy in these states that branded Clinton as a “hypocrite” for accepting secret service protection, while calling for more gun control, which the ad charged “would leave you defenseless”. An earlier NRA ad buy attacked Clinton on Benghazi.

In 2012, the NRA spent $15m in the hope of making Barack Obama a one-term president, and this year’s spending to defeat Clinton is expected to surpass that sum, according to the board member and another NRA source.

[font size=1]-snip-[/font]