Gun Ban Lobby Looking Forward to Hillary Clinton

The Hill reports this morning that the though of Hillary Clinton's White House bid is energizing the gun ban lobby, believing she is the one who can finish the task that Barack Obama couldn't on criminalizing private transfers:

Gun control advocates have high hopes for Hillary Clinton’s presidential run, viewing her as an ally who can finish the push for tightened background checks that has stalled in President Obama’s second term.

Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, has been a staunch advocate of gun-control proposals such as expanding background checks and banning assault weapons. Last summer, she ripped groups that oppose those ideas as out of step with public opinion.

“We cannot let a minority of people, and that’s what it is, it is a minority of people, hold a view point that terrorizes the majority of people,” Clinton said during a CNN town hall event.

It's not really clear how she would be any more successful than Obama since even with the U.S. Senate in the hands of the Democrats and run by Obama's lackey, Harry Reid, they fell well short of the votes needed to take away our rights.  It is also likely that even though Republicans will have a tough battle to hold their Senate majority in 2016 since they have to defend far more seats than Democrats, that there will be enough pro-rights votes in the Senate and definitely in the House to keep her from successfully pushing further restrictions.

Dan Gross of the Brady Campaign believes Clinton can make the sales pitch on so-called "expanded background checks" during the campaign but the Hill pointed out that pushing gun control may pay dividends with the left but could also prove a liability in several battleground states.

For the first time in decades, a majority of Americans say it is more important to protect gun rights than it is to limit gun ownership, according to a December poll from the Pew Research Center.

The same Pew poll found that a slight majority of women now believe owning a handgun can protect them from becoming victims of crime.

This rising popularity of guns among women could help Republicans in swing states like Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Virginia, North Carolina, and New Hampshire, according to GOP strategist Ford O’Connell.

Gun control advocates fire back that a 2013 poll showed 90% of the public supports "expanded background checks." But is that really the case?  It depends on how the question is asked.

I'm still not ready to bet the farm that Clinton will be the Democratic nominee, but I would be willing to bet whoever the nominee is, it won't be a friend of gun owners.