Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke here Friday night, one of the last stops on the long, hard-fought road to California’s June 7 primary.

“Hello, San Bernardino! I am so excited to be here!” Clinton told a crowd of hundreds at Cal State San Bernardino Friday evening, her voice hoarse after a day of campaigning.

It was a day and six months after the terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center that killed 14 and wounded 22 people nine miles away from CSUSB’s Coyote Den Gym.

“You people in this beautiful city know the horrors, the losses involved with gun violence,” Clinton said.

She pledged to make gun violence less common, working within the bounds of the Constitution.

“There is no contradiction between being a responsible gun owner and trying to save lives,” she said.

PHOTO GALLERY: HILLARY CLINTON IN SAN BERNARDINO

She also spoke of being one of President Barack Obama’s advisors during the last days of the hunt for al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, five years ago. The advisors had been divided about what to do with intelligence information that said he was in a compound in Pakistan.

Clinton said she had pushed for sending in Special Forces soldiers, rather than using a drone, so that the White House could be sure that they had gotten the terrorist leader.

“I will do whatever I can to protect America and Americans,” she said. “There is no higher or more solemn responsibility.”

One of New York’s senators in 2001, Clinton had visited the site where the twin towers of the World Trade Center had fallen during the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

“Ground Zero was as close to Hell as I ever hope to see,” she said.

But in contrast with presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, Clinton said the War on Terror can be waged without forfeiting fundamental American values.

The SEAL team that ended up killing bin Laden, she said, evacuated the women and children out of his compound — “terrorist families,” Clinton said — before they blew up a downed American helicopter, to prevent the technology from getting into enemy hands.

“That to me is what honor looks like. That to me is what America stands for,” she said.

Clinton also spoke of the economic challenges the San Bernardino area has faced, promising more jobs for “hard-working people right here in the Inland Empire.”

The region suffered hard during the Great Recession, she said.

“We are finally on the right track, but we have work to do,” Clinton said. “Let’s get some more infrastructure jobs! More roads, more bridges, more trains.”

Like her rivals for president, she vowed to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States.

“We invent a lot of things in America, and I think it’s time we start to build those things in America,” she said.

The audience was older and even more diverse than fellow Democratic primary candidate Bernie Sanders’ audiences had been during his visits to the region last week. And it was largely women, as was her campaign staff.

She mocked Trump’s attack that she had been playing “the woman card.”

“Donald Trump is siding with those who want to turn the clock back,” Clinton said.

An audience member replied with an obscene suggestion for Trump.

Clinton promised to protect abortion rights and gay marriage, and lauded California for raising the minimum wage and said she would make sure the nation follows suit.

“We’re also going to make sure that women get paid fairly, with an equal wage,” she said to loud cheers.

She also said the country needs “a path to citizenship with comprehensive immigration reform.”

Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-San Bernardino, introduced Clinton before her speech.

“We need a leader who will be our next president, take us to the next level and bring jobs to the Inland Empire,” he said.

Three Republicans are squaring off to face Aguilar in the 31st Congressional District in Tuesday’s primary.

“We need to do everything in our power to make sure she becomes president,” Aguilar said.

Californians have been treated to more attention from presidential primary candidates than anyone other than deep-pocketed donors normally receives. Both Clinton and her rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, spoke in Riverside last week. Sanders also spoke in Pomona, as did Clinton’s husband, former president Bill Clinton. And Clinton was back in the Inland Empire earlier this week, speaking to locals in Perris Thursday evening.

San Bernardino was Clinton’s fourth campaign stop of the day. She started her day in Culver City, followed by two appearances in Santa Ana. Meanwhile, Sanders is making three stops in Northern California, including appearances in Fairfield, Berkeley and Cloverdale. In contrast, presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is taking it relatively easy, making a single appearance in Redding.

That’s all a reflection of a long primary season that is, blessedly, almost over. Next Tuesday, California and five other states hold their primaries, followed by the District of Columbia on June 14.

At the moment, Clinton has 1,770 pledged delegates to Sanders’ 1,500. She also has many more superdelegates — party officials and elected officialsincluding Aguilar. Clinton has 543 of those, while Sanders has 43 superdelegates. In all, Democratic primary candidates need 2,293 delegates to win the nomination, including superdelegates.

According to Marcia Godwin, a professor of political administration at the University of La Verne, Clinton’s visit — and its timing — is no coincidence.

“It is a day after the six-month remembrance of the Dec. 2, 2015 terrorist attack which demonstrates empathy and concern without appearing to overshadow any events to honor the victims and first responders,” Godwin wrote in an email.

The visit also lets her draw contrasts with Trump and comparisons with Sanders.

“San Bernardino gives Clinton the ability to reach Hispanic voters, whom she needs badly,” Jack Pitney, a professor of American politics at Claremont McKenna College, wrote in an email. “It also allows her to emphasize her ability to handle national security issues, a relative strength in her struggle with Trump.”

The choice to speak at CSUSB may be have also been an attempt to court the youth vote.

“Clinton is also trying to portray herself as at least as popular among younger voters as Sanders, which is why a college campus makes sense,” Godwin said.

The effort is all in vain, according to Republican National Committee spokeswoman Natalie Strom.

“Hillary Clinton’s lead against Bernie Sanders in California has all but gone up in smoke,” Strom wrote in an emailed statement Friday morning. “Blanketing California with campaign events won’t change the fact that she is a dishonest and untrustworthy candidate under FBI investigation that voters have continued to reject in favor of a socialist.”

After her half-hour speech concluded, Clinton was mobbed by supporters wanting to take pictures with her.

“I felt that she was connecting with me,” Claremont resident Barbara Quarton said after. A librarian at CSUSB, Quarton wore an “Educators for Hillary” t-shirt. “I felt like she was sharing pieces of her experience that were meaningful to her but were also really important for me to know about, as a citizen of the United States.”