Clinton takes on gun lobby, gun violence at Hartford rally

Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) and Erica Smegielski look on during the Hartford Gun Violence Prevention Discussion on April 21, 2016 in Hartford, Connecticut. Hillary Clinton held a panel discussion with families of victims of gun violence as she campaigned in Connecticut ahead of Tuesday's presidential primary. less Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) and Erica Smegielski look on during the Hartford Gun Violence Prevention Discussion on April 21, 2016 in Hartford, Connecticut. ... more Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Clinton takes on gun lobby, gun violence at Hartford rally 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

HARTFORD — Surrounded by family members of the Newtown school shooting victims in a city ravaged by gun violence, Hillary Clinton delivered her closing argument Thursday to Democratic primary voters in Connecticut.

The resurgent frontrunner declared that no one running for president is tougher on guns than her during a town hall in Hartford.

Clinton highlighted her 2005 vote in the U.S. Senate against a gun industry immunity law supported by her then-colleague and current rival Bernie Sanders, who Clinton has tried to define as soft on gun violence.

Home to one of the most restrictive gun laws in the nation and a city — Hartford — that last year was dubbed the “murder capital of New England,” Connecticut holds its primaries Tuesday.

“If anything else were killing 33,000 Americans a year, you can bet that we would be fully mobilized, doing everything possible to save lives,” Clinton told some 400 supporters in the gymnasium of the Wilson-Gray YMCA in Hartford's North End.

Sanders’ campaign, which a recent Quinnipiac University poll showed trailing Clinton by 9 percent in the state, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Clinton gazed stoically as those touched by gun violence recounted their darkest hours, including Nelba Marquez-Greene, who lost her 6-year-old daughter, Ana Grace, at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The Hartford native mentioned how she gave Clinton a book to read to Clinton’s granddaugher, Charlotte, that Marquez-Greene read to her daughter the night before she was killed. Marquez-Greene then repeated a message that she shared with her son, Isaiah, who survived the shooting.

“Your mom knows the sound a mother makes when her child is dead from gun violence,” Marquez-Greene said. “It is the same sound in New Haven or New Britain, Darien or Danbury, Sandy Hook or Hartford.”

Questioning motives

Clinton’s detractors immediately accused her Thursday of exploiting the tragedy, including one of the state’s largest Second Amendment groups.

“It is unfortunate that Hillary is rallying around the deaths of little children and educators in an attempt to gain a couple of points over her primary opponent,” said Scott Wilson, president of the 21,000-member Connecticut Citizens Defense League. “Ultimately, her newfound passion for gun control will backfire on her in her national campaign for president.”

Clinton’s backers bristled at the criticism, including Gail Lehmann, 72, a retiree from Ridgefield and member of the Newtown Action Alliance, a grassroots gun-control group. Lehmann wore several green Sandy Hook tribute wristbands and a ribbon on her shirt.

“If they want to use the word ‘exploitation,’ we use the word ‘education,’ ” Lehmann told Hearst Connecticut Media before the event. “I’m a one-one issue voter this year.”

The worst grade-school shooting in U.S. history, which claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators, took place just 48 miles from Hartford. It became the impetus for a crackdown on assault-style weapons and high-capacity gun magazines in Connecticut, an effort that has failed to catch on in the Republican-controlled Congress.

“I find it absolutely indefensible,” Clinton said. “Nobody is more powerful than the gun lobby.”

Clinton was introduced by Erica Smegielski, who is the daughter of the slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung and appears in a new television ad for Clinton.

“Gun violence knows no bounds,” Smegielski said. “I learned the hard way. There's nothing I can do to bring her back.”

Looking to pick up where she left off in her adopted home state of New York, where she beat Sanders in Tuesday’s primary, Clinton referred to her rival’s support of a 2005 shield law for the gun industry. The manufacturer of the Bushmaster XM-15 used in Newtown, which is being sued for wrongful death by some of the victims’ families, cited the law in its unsuccessful motion to have the case dismissed.

“My opponent, Senator Sanders, has voted for it,” Clinton said.

Clinton was also joined by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, a pledged superdelegate for Clinton who traveled to New Hampshire and Iowa to campaign for the former first lady. Malloy has repeatedly criticized Sanders on the issue of gun control.

“If this industry was treated like every other industry in America, we wouldn’t have the problems that we have today,” Malloy said.

Wealth disparities

Clinton’s visit to Hartford also drew attention to the greatest wealth divide of any state in the nation, with Thursday’s rally held in the poorest ZIP code — 06120 — in Connecticut.

In 2015, there were 32 homicides in Hartford, the vast majority of them committed with guns. This year, four of five murders in the capital city have involved guns.

“I think there are tragedies that happen every day in our cities,” Luke Bronin, Hartford’s first-year mayor, who was raised in Greenwich, said before the event. “We need to make sure that those tragedies get the attention they deserve.”

In contrast, Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, is scheduled to visit one of the state’s wealthiest enclaves Thursday night for a private fundraiser at Westport mansion of hedge fund manager and Milwaukee Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry.

Connecticut brings more than just money to the table this election cycle for those seeking the highest office in the land. It brings critical votes that could be the difference in clinching the party’s nomination and a protracted nominating battle between Sanders and Hillary Clinton, who has tried to make guns a wedge issue.

Clinton’s message resonated with Sam Saylor, a Hartford pastor who lost a son to gun violence.

“We can’t kowtow to the sons and daughters of Charlton Heston,” Saylor said, referring to late actor and National Rifle Association champion.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy