NRA takes aim at Obama in Colorado over firearms record

The National Rifle Association began airing a series of TV and radio ads in Colorado on Monday that blast Barack Obama on a variety of “radical” positions the gun-rights group says will take away “our way of life.”

“Now that we’ve started, it won’t stop until after the election,” NRA spokesperson Rachel Parsons said Monday morning. The ads are running in Colorado, New Mexico and Pennsylvania, she said, as part of a “very large, comprehensive campaign.” She declined to say how much the NRA Political Victory Fund is spending.

“We have done polling for months now to find out where we’ll be most effective,” Parsons said. The ad campaign, she said, will expand to other states in coming weeks.

Four different TV ads are airing in Colorado, including one that features a Marine veteran from Wisconsin, who says, “Out there in the desert, defeat was not an option.” Over footage of violence in Iraq, he continues:

Defeating terrorism, protecting our way of life. That’s what it’s all about.

There’s no way I’m voting for a president who will take that away.

Another ad featuring a hunter from Virginia decries a “huge new tax” on “my guns and ammo.” All the ads conclude: “On November 4th, defend freedom. Defeat Obama,” and direct viewers to the NRA’s anti-Obama site.

The group is also sending mailers reinforcing its message to the NRA’s 4 million members nationwide, according to Parsons. “We’re ready to get the ball rolling as far as our commitment to this campaign,” she said.

ABC’s Jake Tapper reported on Saturday a pre-emptive strike from Obama running mate Joe Biden, who unloaded at a labor rally in Virginia:

“I guarantee you Barack Obama ain’t taking my shotguns, so don’t buy that malarkey,” Biden said Saturday at the United Mine Workers of America’s annual fish fry in Castlewood, Virginia. “Don’t buy that malarkey. They’re going to start peddling that to you.”

Biden told the crowd that he himself is a gun owner. “I got two,” Biden said, “if he tries to fool with my Beretta, he’s got a problem. I like that little over and under, you know? I’m not bad with it. So give me a break. Give me a break.”

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