Surrounding Obama’s recent “controversial” statements about people voting on gun laws and second amendment rights, Senator Clinton responded by touting her own experience with guns by recalling a childhood memory:
“You know, my dad took me out behind the cottage that my grandfather built on a little lake called Lake Winola outside of Scranton and taught me how to shoot when I was a little girl,” she said.
“You know, some people now continue to teach their children and their grandchildren. It’s part of culture. It’s part of a way of life. People enjoy hunting and shooting because it’s an important part of who they are. Not because they are bitter.”
Minutes later, in a slightly awkward moment, Clinton faced a question from a woman in the audience whose son had been paralyzed by a gunshot. The woman asked Clinton what she would do about gun control as president.
Clinton touted her husband’s record on gun control during his administration, and said “there is not a contradiction between protecting Second Amendment rights” and the effort to reduce crime.
Noting that many hunters and gun collectors want to keep weapons out of the hands of criminals, Clinton referred to her positive childhood experiences with firearms.
“As I told you, my dad taught me how to shoot behind our cottage,” she said. “I have gone hunting. I am not a hunter. But I have gone hunting.”
Clinton said she has hunted ducks.
What’s next Hillary, will you claim you had to dodge sniper fire outside your father’s cabin?
Obama responded to Hillary’s statements by saying:
“She’s running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsmen, how she values the Second Amendment,” he said, his voice rising. “She’s talking like she’s Annie Oakley! Hillary Clinton’s out there like she’s on the duck blind every Sunday, [like] she’s packin’ a six shooter! C’mon! She knows better.”
I don’t know about you, but Hillary sure reminds me of this version of Annie:
Filed under: gun rights, hillary clinton | Tagged: 2nd amendment rights, annie oakley, gun rights, hillary, hillary clinton
Calling her Annie Oakley is very condescending. I also learned how to shoot. It doesn’t make me a gun nut. She’s talking about an experience she had with her dad, and the truth is a lot of people like to hunt or shoot skeet. It doesn’t make us stupid or “redneck” or to use an Obama word from his book, “crackers.” What he said was offensive, and his Annie Oakley remark offends me more. I am a college educated woman from a working class background and he just snubbed me and women like me.
Obama isn’t calling her Annie Oakley, he is claiming that she is portraying herself as an “Annie Oakley” type figure by suddenly claiming a ton of shooting and arms bearing experience.
Considering that Hillary later, when pressed, couldn’t cite the last time she actually went shooting, and just said that she isn’t a hunter but has shot a duck, it seems kind of outlandish that she can claim the 2nd amendment gun ownership rights as a strong foundation to her heritage (whereas Annie Oakley may legitimately be able to).
I think you are splitting hairs. He was making fun of her in a sexist way. But nevermind. If you read her book Living History she recounts going on hunting trips with her father and brother. These were admittedly many years ago. But she isn’t making it up. Her father took the family often to PA where he was from and they went hunting.
How was he making fun of her in a sexist way?
I wasn’t claiming she made the experience up. But it’s a bit dubious that the story has just now shined into the spotlight as evidence of her ‘extreme passion for protecting the 2nd amendment rights of those oh-so-optimistic PA citizens’ despite that she is not an avid hunter or shooter.