September 13, 2016

NRA Ad Tries to Scare Gun Owners About New York Liberals, Depicts the Wrong City

Check your facts!


The National Rifle Association released a new election ad today attacking Question 3 on Maine’s November ballot, which would require background checks on most transfers of guns between owners.

The NRA’s ad points out that former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, now a prominent gun control activist and the founder of Everytown for Gun Safety, “is spending $3 million to try and boss Mainers around with Question 3.” The ad opens with a view of a city skyline and the words “The New Yorkers” emblazoned below it. The narrator intones: “The New Yorkers are here and they’re trying to tell Mainers how to live.” There’s just one problem: The skyline in this ad is most definitely San Francisco’s, not New York’s.

Here’s the start of the ad:

YouTube

Here’s SF:

Yurkaimmortal/iStock

Here’s NY:

funnybank/iStock

To its credit, the NRA did remember to add a Statue of Liberty to its version—and yet somehow didn’t notice in the process that the rest of the skyline was wrong, or just didn’t care to use the right one.

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In this month’s Summer Membership Drive, we’ve got to raise $200,000 to support more crucial investigations. This is a pivotal moment in our nation, with democracy on the line, and we can only do this work because readers like you step up. Every donation, of any amount, makes a difference here. We cannot do this work without you.

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