POLITICO reports that the NRA has launched a $6.5 million ad buy to support Donald Trump’s campaign, and its centerpiece ad features a 26-year old woman named Kristi McMains, whose defensive gun use against a knife-wielding attacker in January saved her life.
The left-leaning news site terms the ad a play for “millennials and women,” and notes that the ad buy will be focused in the key battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, as well as being broadcast on cable channels nationwide.
Regarding the ad, Ms. McMains was quoted as saying:
This election comes down to my Second Amendment rights — specifically, what happens with the Supreme Court…. Without my gun, I would not be alive. This is a tough election for a lot of people, but I know where Donald Trump stands on the Second Amendment, and I know where Hillary Clinton stands. I stand with Trump.
The ad can be found on YouTube below.
Her word choice is interesting: “Every woman has a right to defend herself with a gun if she chooses. Hillary Clinton disagrees with that.” Perhaps…it’s not a gun, it’s a choice? I wonder if that phrasing will resonate with women and millennials.
Ms. McMains was attacked on January 26, 2016, allegedly by John Ganobick in a Louisville, Kentucky parking lot. The story was reported by WLKW in Louisville earlier this year. Ganobick allegedly followed Ms. McMains from Louisville’s Fourth Street Live food court to a nearby parking garage. He entered the garage elevator with her, and generally made the lady feel uncomfortable. When the doors opened, she ran for her car, and Ganobick gave chase.
As she tried to get into her car, Ganobick slammed her head into an unknown object, told her to “give me all your (expletive removed) money,” and showed her a knife, the arrest report said.
[McMains] told police Ganobick was thrusting his knee toward her torso and trying to push her into the passenger seat of the car.
She pulled out her gun, but it did not fire and Ganobick punched her in the face and pushed the knife toward her head, police said.
[McMains] fired again and Ganobick was shot.
Ganobick survived the shooting (she had hit him in the neck,) and was subsequently charged with robbery, wanton endangerment and assault.
POLITICO says that Ms. McMains “was trained to use a gun, but hadn’t been diligent about carrying it until a few weeks before her attack.” She since has chosen to carry her gun more regularly “after watching a heated exchange between President Barack Obama and Kimberly Corban, a rape survivor who said [Obama’s] gun restrictions made it harder to protect her family.”
Good for her. Let us all be thankful that we live in a country that — at least for now — respects our right to make that choice as well.