The National Rifle Association has released a 2008 letter from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., praising the group one day after the senator called it the “worst organization in this country.”
The senator, a contender for the 2020 Democratic nomination, said during a Fox News town hall in Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday that the NRA cares “more about their profits than the American people,” and accused the group of lying to increase profit.
Gillibrand sent a letter to Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA and the group’s lobbying arm, the Institute for Legislative Action, in September 2008, when she was a member of the House.
"I want to be very clear that I always have and always will believe that the correct interpretation of the 2nd amendment [sic] is that it applies to an individual's right to carry guns, and does not apply generally to the National Guard or a group of individuals in a State," Gillibrand wrote.
When asked why she changed her position on guns following her appointment to the Senate, Gillibrand said on Sunday that she “came from a district that was really rural — Second Amendment was important, hunting was important. I recognize people have different communities. ... The truth is, it wasn’t good enough to care only about your backyard — you’ve got to care about communities across this country.”
She said last year that she was “embarrassed” by her past opinions on guns after meeting “families who had suffered from gun violence in their communities,” in Brooklyn.