Katie Pavlich: An NRA lesson for Hillary

Just 12 hours after the massacre in Las Vegas and before families of every victim could be notified, former Democrat Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton shamelessly and predictably opened the floodgates of politicization.  

“Las Vegas, we are grieving with you—the victims, those who lost loved ones, the responders, & all affected by this cold-blooded massacre,” Clinton tweeted Monday. “The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get. Our grief isn’t enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.”

Imagine a world where Hillary Clinton actually knew what she was talking about.

{mosads}Once again, the woman infamous for calling half the country “deplorables” and citing Republicans as “her enemy” finds herself ignorantly spouting off in a desperate attempt for relevance and attention. Silencers have zero to do with Las Vegas, yet she’s going after the issue in an effort to gain some kind of political footing with gun control in the wake of a tragedy. It’s no wonder the NRA spent more than $30 million to defeat her in 2016.

First, silencers have zero relevance to Las Vegas but that hasn’t stopped Hillary’s ignorant hysteria. Conveniently, however, they are relevant to deregulation legislation currently making its way through the House.

“Silencers” are more accurately termed suppressors. They do not silence anything and firearms attached to a suppressor are still very loud. Suppressors simply bring the decibel level down to a level that doesn’t severely damage hearing, making firing less loud yet very far from silent or even muted. Many people who shoot suppressed also wear earplugs.

Second, Hillary again insulted the very same people she claims to care about. The NRA isn’t a boogeyman organization behind a curtain. The NRA is made up of millions of people who believe in the Second Amendment and the organization is very closely connected to the country music community. I’ve been to dozens of concerts where attendees proudly wore NRA hats and t-shirts. In fact, the NRA partners with a number of artists for their NRA Country brand and puts on shows across the country every year.

“NRA Country is a celebration of American values. Respect. Honor. Freedom. It’s a lifestyle and a bond between the best and brightest in country music and hard-working Americans. NRA Country is powered by pride, love of country, respect for the military, and our responsibility to protect our great American lifestyle,” the NRA Country website states. “NRA Country celebrates these values with concerts and events benefiting military and veteran services organizations, first responders, conservation organizations, firearm safety programs, and local charities making a difference in their communities. NRA Country will be involved in causes that defend our values and it will empower our artist friends who promote these values to encourage our next generation of leaders.”

Country lyrics often reference the NRA and firearms ownership as a way of life. Artists such as John Rich, Toby Keith, Sara Evans and others regularly play shows at the NRA Annual Meeting, which thousands of NRA members attend. In fact, John Rich performed on the Las Vegas Route 91 Harvest Festival stage just one hour before Stephen Paddock opened fire on innocent fans.

Hillary wouldn’t know any of this and wouldn’t bother to check, either. After all, the NRA is always a good punching bag for the left when they fail to come up with real solutions. Name-calling is easy, but unity and moving forward with real changes is hard. Focusing on distractions like harmless suppressors is a cowardly way of ignoring actions and accountability. Hillary and those like her are happy to attack an organization made of up Americans with values opposed to their own in the wake of unspeakable evil.

Now to give her credit, at least Hillary didn’t go as far as CBS legal executive Hayley Geftman-Gold with her insults. Gold wrote on her Facebook page Monday, “I’m actually not even sympathetic [because] country music fans often are Republican gun toters.”

In other words, they had death coming because they don’t adhere to leftist political ideology. She has been fired.

It is true there are many “Republican,” “gun-toting” NRA members who regularly attend country concerts. I happen to be one of them. There are also thousands of people who are not Republicans or gun owners who attend and fortunately, there isn’t a political litmus test when you walk through the door.  

In the wake of one of America’s most deadly events, Hillary Clinton couldn’t find it within her to take a step back, put on a little grace and act accordingly. Instead she again chose to be divisive at a time of deep pain for everyone and went after millions of Americans she deems to be the enemy. After all, she has a book to sell.

Pavlich is the editor for Townhall.com and a Fox News contributor.