During a town hall meeting at Cornell College in Iowa on Wednesday, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton compared the National Rifle Association to Iranians and communists.
"You know, the NRA’s position reminds me of negotiating with the Iranians or the Communists," she said. "You know, there's no possible discussion and it's for political purposes. You know, this is the way this works and it's pretty cynical: the NRA tries to keep gun owners, the ones who are members, really upset all the time so they can keep collecting their money because they tell them they're the only thing that's going to stop the black helicopters from landing on the front yard and people's guns being seized."
"I mean, that's basically the argument they make."
Clinton also criticized Republican presidential candidates.
"And then you've got people running for President on the other side who say ‘well, um, you know, we just need more guns,’" she said. "And the idea that you need more guns to stop people who are committing mass shootings is not only illogical but offensive. You know, you're going about your daily business, you're going to a movie, you're in the dark for heaven's sakes, and some guy comes in who should've been committed in Louisiana, and was falling apart in Colorado, and just opens fire. And you're supposed to fire back in a crowded dark theater?"
"This is craziness."
She said those arguments are designed to scare and manipulate gun owners in order to protect gun manufacturers.
"I mean, the whole thing is aimed at protecting gun manufacturers so that they can continue to sell their wares without any accountability and collecting money by scaring gun owners," Clinton said. "So I know why the president feels discouraged, because it is discouraging to see the cynicism, the greed behind this lobbying. And that's why we can't let them get away with it."
"We can't just say ‘OK, nothing we can do about it’ and walk away. We have got to fight back and we've got to do it on a number of different platforms, um, and that's what I intend to do for as long as I can."
Despite promising donors at a closed-door fundraiser two weeks ago that she would argue "every chance" that the Supreme Court is "wrong" on the Second Amendment, Clinton did not mention the Supreme Court in her remarks on Wednesday nor has she publicly criticized the court's gun rulings since launching her campaign.