The Republican candidate for the US Senate in Iowa, Joni Ernst, told a National Rifle Association gathering in 2012 that she favored gun ownership in part to guard against the threat of the government violating citizens’ gun rights, it emerged on Thursday.
“I have a beautiful little Smith & Wesson, 9mm, and it goes with me virtually everywhere,” Ernst told a crowd at an NRA and Iowa firearms coalition second amendment rally in Searsboro, Iowa, in a speech flagged on Thursday by the Huffington Post. “But I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family – whether it’s from an intruder, or whether it’s from a government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important.”
The “gun grab” myth – that the government wants to confiscate Americans’ guns – has proven especially powerful during the Barack Obama presidency, despite court decisions loosening restrictions on gun ownership and Congress’s perennial inaction on the issue. Opponents of the president have been accused of cynically exaggerating the threat.
Iowa is not a particularly gun-friendly state, but it does have a culture of recreational hunting and relatively unrestrictive gun laws. Guns & Ammo magazine placed Iowa 38th in its 2014 rankings of the best states for gun owners (Arizona was first).
Ernst has a two-decade career with the US army reserves and the National Guard. She has previously featured her affection for firearms in her closely fought race with Democratic nominee Bruce Braley to replace retiring senator Tom Harkin. An early campaign commercial featured footage of her firing a handgun at a range.
“When she sets her sites on Obamacare, Joni’s gonna unload,” the narrator says. Which she does.
