National gun safety group endorses Hillary Clinton
Everytown for Gun Safety, which claims to be the nation's largest gun violence group, announced Friday it's supporting Hillary Clinton.
"Our litmus test is simple: does a candidate side with the public or with the gun lobby?" John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said in a statement. "Hillary Clinton passes that test with flying colors - pushing back against the NRA's extreme 'guns for everyone, everywhere' agenda, and ushering in a new political calculus that saving lives from gun violence is a winning issue."
On Thursday, Clinton tweeted about gun violence:
This is the first presidential endorsement for the group, which was founded in 2014 and is backed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This election cycle, Everytown is working on ballot initiatives in Maine and Nevada -- they resemble the one passed in Washington in 2014, which expanded background checks on gun sales online and at gun shows.
The NRA last month endorsed Donald Trump for the presidency -- the nation's largest gun lobby said that a Clinton administration would mean "you can kiss your guns goodbye" and warned that she'd be sure to put "a radical gun activist in [the late Supreme Court Justice] Scalia's seat as soon as she can."
Clinton has met several times with survivors and families of victims of gun violence throughout the campaign. She says that she supports Second Amendment rights but advocates gun safety measures like expanding background checks and the reinstatement of the assault weapons ban.