Hillary Clinton Blasts ‘Way Out of Balance’ Gun Culture

Potential 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that gun culture in the U.S. has become “way out of balance.”

“I think that we’ve got to rein in what has become an almost article of faith that anybody can have a gun anywhere, anytime,” Clinton said at the National Council for Behavioral Health conference in Maryland. “And I don’t believe that is in the best interest of the vast majority of people. And I think you can say that and still support the right of people to own guns.”

Clinton added that she believes in the right to bear arms—her father taught her how to shoot as a child— but the former Secretary of State cited recent examples of deadly shooting over teens playing loud music and fathers texting the babysitter in movie theaters in making her case, saying that “at the rate we’re going, we’re going to have so many people with guns everywhere, fully licensed, fully validated.”

Clinton has a long history of advocating for gun control. During her 2000 Senate bid, she said one of the reasons she was running was because “we need a comprehensive plan to stop gun violence.” Come the 2008 election against Obama, however, she portrayed herself to the right of the now-President on gun control issues—a stance which some gun control advocates found hypocritical.

[AP]