(Video above: Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) discusses Trump on Fox News Sunday)
WASHINGTON — Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) is warning gun rights advocates that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton would be “the most anti-Second Amendment president perhaps we’ve ever had.”
During an appearance on Fox News Sunday, that Alabama senator, who also heads up presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump’s national security advisory committee, echoed the billionaire real estate mogul’s claim that Clinton would be a disaster for gun rights.
Clinton said recently that she opposes the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, which protects individual Americans’ right to keep and bear arms for self-defense.
“And what that means is, it’s no longer a personal right to have a gun, but every city, county, and state can completely ban firearms in America,” Sessions said. “This would be the greatest reduction of Second Amendment rights since the founding of the republic.”
Sessions noted that the Supreme Court is currently split evenly, four-to-four, on the Heller decision, and that the next President will appoint the deciding vote on the issue.
Trump recently garnered the support of the National Rifle Association. This is the earliest point during a presidential election cycle that the influential advocacy group has endorsed a candidate, signaling their growing concern with the possibility of a Clinton presidency.
Upon receiving the endorsement, Trump said Clinton “wants to abolish the Second Amendment.”
“We’re not going to let that happen,” he told the enthusiastic crowd. “We’re going to preserve it, we’re going to cherish it.”
Clinton has defended her position on guns, calling for “common sense” reforms that would preserve the Second Amendment but make the country safer.
“Unlike Donald Trump, I will not pander to the gun lobby, and we will not be silenced and we will not be intimidated,” Clinton said at a Trayvon Martin Foundation event in Florida.
Politico predicted Sunday that the presidential race will turn into an “epic battle over guns.”
“Guns are going to be on the ballot like never before this November,” wrote Politico’s Sarah Wheaton.
If Sessions’ comments on Fox News and the NRA’s early endorsement are any indication, they both appear to agree.
(h/t Washington Examiner, Politico)
