Sen. Pryor hits back at Bloomberg in first TV ad

Catalina Camia | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON -- Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor is firing back at gun-control advocates, using the first TV ad of his 2014 campaign to defend his vote against gun legislation and push back against New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The ad, coming 17 months before Pryor faces voters in Arkansas, began running statewide Friday.

Pryor was one of four Democrats who voted in April against a bill that would expand background checks on gun buyers. The Arkansas senator has been targeted in ad campaigns by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the group co-founded by Bloomberg, both before and since the Senate vote.

"The mayor of New York City is running ads against me because I opposed President Obama's gun-control legislation. Nothing in the Obama plan would have prevented tragedies like Newtown, Aurora, Tucson or even Jonesboro," Pryor said in the ad, as he speaks directly to the camera. "I'm committed to finding real solutions to gun violence while protecting our Second Amendment rights."

Pryor ends the ad by saying, "No one from New York or Washington tells me what to do. I listen to Arkansas."

Obama blasted the politics of the gun debate after the Senate defeated the bipartisan background check proposal, calling it a "shameful" day. Only four Republicans supported the measure, which was considered a compromise. The bill would have expanded background checks to include purchases made at gun shows and on the Internet.

Earlier this month, Pryor told an Arkansas audience that he'd be willing to look at a revised gun proposal if it combined parts of the background checks proposal by Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., and another drafted by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

Pryor voted for the Grassley plan, which included strict penalties on "straw purchases" -- those made by someone who can legally own a gun on behalf of someone who is barred from owning a firearm.

Pryor is widely considered to be among the most vulnerable Senate Democrats seeking re-election, although a Republican opponent has not yet entered the race. Obama lost Arkansas to Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election by nearly 24 percentage points.

Pryor raised nearly $2 million from January through March in his bid for a third term, including at a fundraising event featuring former president Bill Clinton, a longtime friend of the Pryor family. Pryor's father, David, is a popular former Arkansas governor and senator.