NRA launches campaign against Obama's gun control

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun groups in the United States have launched a massive media blitz to counter President Barack Obama's new executive actions on gun control restrictions.

“The Gun Owners of America is rallying the grassroots in opposition to the president’s unlawful executive actions," Erich Pratt, the gun group's executive director, told a news agency on Saturday.

"Our hope is to produce enough pressure that either the president backs off of his plans to restrict Second Amendment rights, as he did last year when he withdrew the ban on ‘green tip’ ammunition, or we generate so much momentum that the next president is compelled to rescind Obama’s unlawful decrees during the first week in office," Pratt said.

The offensive is reportedly comprised of a series of videos, newspaper ads and email alerts from the NRA, the Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation in an effort to swing public opinion against the measures.

Reports said the gun groups were also working to make opposition to Obama's gun actions a litmus test for any Republican candidate with GOP voters poised to hit the polls.

“The easiest solution is to elect a pro-gun president,” the group stated in an email alert.

“While several presidential hopefuls have already indicated they would repeal Obama’s executive actions if elected, the GOA-endorsed candidate, Ted Cruz, has promised to erase Obama’s gun control legacy,” it continued.

Earlier this month, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Obama “the most anti-gun president” in history, while front-runner Donald Trump said he'll “unsign" the actions "so fast."

According to Pratt, gun rights groups hope their efforts will “create enough momentum” for a Republican president to repeal the measures.

“We want to make enough of a push that the Obama administration retreats on this — as they did on the bullet ban — or where the next Republican president says, ‘This is a no brainer, it’s one of the first things I will do, repeal these executive actions,’” Pratt said.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton also used the issue to put Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), her chief primary opponent, on the defensive. She accused Sanders of aiding the gun lobby, bringing up past votes against gun-control legislation cast by the rural state senator.

The blitz came in the wake of an emotional news conference at the White House earlier this month when Obama announced his actions including tighter federal background checks on gun sales and expanded mental health treatment.

Wayne LaPierre, the NRA's executive vice president, immediately lashed out at Obama's actions and last week, he challenged Obama to a "one-on-one, one-hour debate, with a mutually agreed-upon moderator, on any network that will take it."

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