In his analysis for CNN, Eric Bradner acknowledges Clinton’s support for many different types of gun control -- a 25 percent tax on handguns, an assault weapons ban, repeal of laws allowing permitted concealed handguns, and background checks on the private transfer of guns. Clinton also has supported increased fees and a variety of regulations that her husband imposed. Thanks to Bill Clinton’s regulations, the number of licensed firearms dealers from 248,155 in 1992 to 67,479 in 2000 -- a 73 percent reduction.
The media picks and chooses when to take Clinton at her word. CNN pointed to a recent Fox News Sunday appearance where Hillary Clinton claimed: "I'm not looking to repeal the Second Amendment. I'm not looking to take people's guns away." The Washington Post noted a statement from her campaign website about how “gun ownership is part of the fabric of many law-abiding communities.”
But in June, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos pushed Clinton twice on whether people have a right to own guns. “But that's not what I asked. I said do you believe that their conclusion that an individual's right to bear arms is a constitutional right?” Clinton could only say: “If it is a constitutional right . . . .”
Similarly, in New York City in the fall, she told donors: “The Supreme Court is wrong on the Second Amendment, and I am going to make that case every chance that I get.” In Maryland in April, Chelsea Clinton promised that her mom would appoint to the Supreme Court justices who would overturn past decisions that struck down gun-control measures. But the only laws that the Supreme Court evaluated were complete gun bans and a law that made it a crime to use a gun.
