Gun rights groups are drumming up support to stop the Senate from voting in Loretta Lynch as the nation's next attorney general.
The Hill reports both the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) are reaching out to their members in response to President Barack Obama's nomination of Lynch to replace Eric Holder.
In an alert sent to its members, the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action said Lynch would have a negative affect on Americans' rights to carry a weapon.
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he plans to take the confirmation vote on President Obama's U.S. Attorney General Nominee, Loretta Lynch, to the Senate floor sometime next week. The vote will likely be very close," the NRA letter reads.
"As the nation's top law enforcement officer, Lynch would almost certainly have an impact on our Second Amendment rights. We know Lynch supports the Obama administration's position to ban 'assault weapons.' And, we know that the general-purpose rifles that gun control supporters call 'assault weapons' — such as the AR-15 — are the most popular rifles in the United States. We also know that the President's previous choice for Attorney General — Eric Holder — clearly demonstrated the damage an Obama-appointed, agenda-driven, anti-gun Attorney General can do to our rights and freedoms as Americans."
The NRA closed the letter by saying it opposes Lynch's nomination, and it urged Americans to "immediately contact" their Senators to voice their concerns about her.
The Senate Judiciary Committee voted in favor of Lynch's nomination Feb. 26, but McConnell has delayed the nomination vote on the Senate floor. The vote was scheduled to take place this week before it was pushed back a week as the Senate squabbles over a human trafficking bill.
The NAGR, meanwhile, has gathered nearly 200,000 signatures
on a petition to prevent Lynch from being confirmed as the nation's top cop.
The group also sent out
a press release Wednesday that called for senators not to vote for Lynch.
"Lynch has refused to answer direct questions about gun rights and dodged questions about the Justice Department's gun smuggling scheme Fast and Furious," NAGR President Dudley Brown said in the release. "Given her close personal and professional ties to this lawless administration, gun owners fully expect her to be Eric Holder 2.0."
The Hill obtained a copy of a letter written by the Gun Owners of America and about 20 other pro-gun groups to be delivered to McConnell's Capitol Hill office.
"The group's letter reminds McConnell that it campaigned against Senate Democrats in the 2012 elections so that the upper chamber would be under Republican control," the Hill report reads.
The delay in holding a vote on Lynch's confirmation has not gone unnoticed by Democrats, who in recent days have claimed race is behind the GOP's stalling. Lynch, like Holder, is African-American.
On Wednesday, for example, Democrat
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said Lynch has been "asked to sit in the back of the bus."
And on Tuesday, Democrat
Rep. G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina said he thinks "race certainly can be considered a major factor in the delay."
Many Republicans
oppose Lynch's nomination because she is favor of Obama's executive action on immigration, which would provide amnesty to 4-5 million people currently living in the U.S. illegally.
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