Biden focuses on gun control with new Iowa ad campaign

Former Vice President Joe Biden (D) is focusing on the issue of gun control and school shootings in a new series of digital ads with the Iowa caucuses less than a month away.

One of the ads, “Classroom,” features Denison, Iowa, teacher Jane Lyons, who talks about how she prepares her fourth-grade students for the possibility of a mass shooting.

“This is not something an educator should have to be talking about,” Lyons says in the long version of the ad. “I shouldn’t have to do this. When I found out that Joe Biden was going to run for president, I was excited, because I trust Joe Biden with gun issues.”

The other ad in the series, “Troubled Soul,” highlights a clip of speech Biden gave in which he criticizes the fact that children in America have to be taught how to “duck and cover” at school.

Biden’s campaign told The Hill that the advertisements are part of an ongoing $4 million ad buy in the Hawkeye State. The spokesperson from the campaign also said the ads target potential caucusgoers that could have a vested interest in gun control. Hulu, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram will feature the two ads.

The former Delaware senator’s gun control plan released last year includes a renewed ban on assault weapons and enhanced background checks.

Biden has long been an advocate for stricter gun control. While he was vice president, he led a task force that recommended nearly two dozen executive orders to former President Obama following the 2011 Sandy Hook massacre. 

The latest CBS News-YouGov poll has Biden tied at 23 percent with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg in Iowa.