A National Rifle Association attack ad targeting Maine congressional candidate Emily Cain falsely claims that Cain called “restricting our rights” “the right thing to do.” But according to the newspaper article the NRA cites, Cain was speaking about expanded background checks, a policy that doesn’t infringe upon the Second Amendment. The article in question also explicitly notes that Cain “didn’t say she would restrict rights, saying she supports” the Second Amendment.

In the October 31 ad released by NRA lobbying arm Institute for Legislative Action, a narrator says, “Politician Emily Cain called restricting our rights ‘the right thing to do,’” citing the October 15, 2014, edition of the Kennebec Journal:

According to a review of the article in Nexis, Cain was speaking about her support for expanding background checks on gun sales:

But on gun issues, they diverged, with [Emily] Cain supporting mandatory background checks on private gun purchases. [Rep. Bruce] Poliquin, who is endorsed by the pro-gun National Rifle Association, opposes that, saying Maine has a high rate of gun ownership and a low level of crime. “We need to protect our gun rights, not whittle away at them, as Ms. Cain says she will do,” he said. Cain didn't say she would restrict rights, saying she supports the Constitution's 2nd Amendment, but called expanding background checks “the right thing to do” to reduce gun violence.

There is no “right” to purchase a gun without undergoing a background check. In the 2008 landmark Supreme Court decision District of Columbia v. Heller, Justice Antonin Scalia described the Second Amendment as encompassing the right for law-abiding people to own a gun in the home for the purpose of self-defense. After describing the Second Amendment right, Scalia wrote that “nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on … laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.”

During the Senate’s consideration of expanded background check legislation in 2013, a group of 50 constitutional law experts wrote that expanded background check legislation passed constitutional muster under D.C. v. Heller, noting, “Universal background checks, especially those conducted instantaneously through the National Instant Background Check System, do not impose a significant burden on law-abiding citizens.” In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, constitutional law expert and law professor Lawrence Tribe stated, “There is no serious doubt that requiring ... a universal background check would comply with the Second Amendment.”

The NRA has spent more than $50 million on the 2016 presidential and congressional elections, in many instances on ads that are premised on serious factual falsehoods.