Hillary, you had better be absolutely clean on this "my dad taught me to shoot" thing. Because I am reading. I am reading now every public statement you have ever made regarding guns. And if this is another Bosnian sniper fire story - I'll be letting the world know.
My first question is - have you ever spoken before about your father teaching you how to use a gun? I'll be checking. If not, that sure would be interesting.
I did find this, however, from a speech you made in 2003 to the League of Conservation voters:
I had a constituent come up to me after the EPA Inspector General's report came out and, you know, she was just absolutely beside herself because she happens to live downtown and she brought her two young boys back to their apartment. She and her husband did their best to clean up the apartment and to remove the thick dust that had settled there – some of you might remember those haunting pictures of tea sets covered with like an inch of dust and knowing full well that it was filled with all kinds of terrible consequences of those horrific attacks. And this woman said to me, don't they understand that this is about my life, this is about things that really matter to me. And then she said, when will people realize that I care as passionately about the air I breathe and the water I drink as some people care about their guns? And you know that's what I want everybody in Washington to understand.
Here Hillary endorses this statement - that we should care about the environment the way "some people" care about their guns.
Who are those "some people" Hillary?
Here Hillary was trying to burnish her environmental creds, at the expense of those people who own guns.
I would like Hillary to expand a bit more about exactly what she meant in this speech about the gun owners.
I'm not done yet, Hill - just getting started.
Update 1: At the 4/26/07 Presidential Debate, there was a request for a show of hands as to who has had a gun in the house. Hillary responded in the negative, at least as pertains to her "adult lifetime". You'd think that she would want to answer in the affirmative if at all possible, and that if she grew up around guns she would go ahead and raise her hand regardless. But at the very least, it shows that Hillary has not, in her adult lifetime, been a "regular gal" gun owner.
MODERATOR: And because our producers are learning about the consumption of time, we have our first “show of hands” question tonight.
(LAUGHTER)
How many of you, in your adult lifetime, have had a gun in the house?
One—Senator Gravel, Senator Biden, Senator Dodd, Governor Richardson, Congressman Kucinich.
Thank you very much.
Senator Biden, the kind of flip side of the question I just asked Senator Clinton: What could the federal government have done to save those kids at Virginia Tech?
UPDATE 2: Apparently, way back in FEBRUARY of 2008, Hillary told a story about how she killed a duck when hunting with her father. Details are sketchy:
In an amazing coincidence just days before another crucial Democratic primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton, campaigning in Wisconsin -- where thousands build their annual vacations around deer-hunting season -- has let it slip that she went hunting once.
"I know you don't believe it," she told an enthusiastic audience at Kenosha's Brat Stop over the weekend, "but it's actually true. My father taught me to shoot 100 years ago."
According to The Times' Nicholas Riccardi, who was there, she then launched into an explanation of how school shootings can be stopped without infringing on gun owners' rights. She declined to elaborate on her hunting career later except to say that she had nailed a duck.
Did Hillary ever mention hunting experience before she was running for president?