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Andrew Gillum hits Gwen Graham on gun control

The Tallahassee Mayor suggests Graham has flip-flopped on guns
 
The Brady campaign, the gun control advocacy group, celebrated Graham's election to Congress, which the NRA opposed.
The Brady campaign, the gun control advocacy group, celebrated Graham's election to Congress, which the NRA opposed.
Published March 5, 2018|Updated March 5, 2018

MSNBC loves them some Andrew Gillum, and the Tallahassee Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate on Saturday made another appearance on Florida rock star Joy Reid's "AM Joy" show. Reid played a clip of a 2013 Gwen Graham interview when she ran for Congress in a Republican-leaning, north Florida district .

"I'm a very big supporter of the second amendment," Graham says in the clip, noting that her husband was in law enforcement wore a gun "every single day" while working for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.* as a lawand her husband "wears a gun every single day"…Any law-abiding citizen should not have their gun taken away."

Gillum, who endorsed Graham for Congress and cut a radio ad for her, was happy to discuss it. It was his most aggressive and direct shots at Graham to date.

"The Gwen Graham who ran for congress would not recognize the Gwen Graham running for governor on the issue of guns," Gillum said, noting that the Parkland killer purchased his firearms legally.

"I'm pleased to see the congresswoman now campaigning as a gun reform advocate. I wish that she had campaigned that way when she ran for congress," he continued. "And I'm hopeful that we'll understand between the two of those versions of herself which one is the true one."

Here’s the clip:

The Graham campaign noted that in the House, Graham voted for bills to expand the background check system (HR 1217, to bar people on the terrorist watch list from buying firearms (HR 1076), and to ban the sale of magazines holding more than 10 rounds.:

"Here's the bottom line: In 2014, the NRA spent almost $300,000 to defeat Gwen in her campaign for Congress," spokesman Matt Harringer said. "She refused their false debate between the Second Amendment and gun control — and on election night, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence celebrated Gwen's victory. That makes her the only candidate for Governor who has beaten the NRA, their A-rated Republican candidates, and their dirty money.  In Congress, Gwen co-sponsored legislation to strengthen background checks, and joined Congressman John Lewis in the June 2016 House sit-in to demand gun control. Any suggestion Gwen is not a strong supporter of gun safety is flat out false – period."

*Hurm, now general counsel for the Leon County Sheriff, told me a few years ago he considered it absurd for anyone to suggest that America's founders, when writing the Second Amendment, would have been comfortable with citizens owning military-style semiautomatic rifles.