NRA: Obama most anti-gun candidate ever, will ban guns

A recent mailing from the president of the National Rifle Association to its members says that Barack Obama wants to ban the possession of handguns, and that "never in NRA's history have we faced a presidential candidate — and hundreds of candidates running for other offices — with such a deep-rooted hatred of firearm freedoms."

The fundraising letter from NRA President Wayne LaPierre focused largely on Obama's record and statements — since, in part, disavowed — from the 1990s of strong support for gun control measure, like waiting periods and background checks to buy a gun.

LaPierre also attacked Obama for his association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, a front John McCain and the GOP have avoided.

"There's Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his church, to which Obama contributed $26,000 over the years, even as Wright spouted anti-American hatred," LaPierre writes in a list of Obama's "friends."

The mailing also included a wallet card (below) listing what the NRA claims are Obama's positions on guns, though they are not in fact his campaign positions, and in many cases it seems flatly to contradict them. The NRA claims Obama wants to bar the use of firearms for home defense and ban the manufacture and sale of handguns. How the group reaches those conclusions is unclear. In one case, though, it interprets an Illinois proposal he backed to close gun shops near schools and parks as a plan to "close down 90 percent of the gun shops in America."

According to the campaign (.pdf), Obama "will protect the rights of hunters and other law-abiding Americans to purchase, own, transport, and use guns for the purposes of hunting and target shooting."

He's also said he believes there is an individual right to bear arms.

The mailing appears in full, with criticism, on an online bulletin board, but NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam confirmed its validity.