NRA pushes back with anti-Obama ad

WASHINGTON — In a sharp pushback against any new gun regulations, the National Rifle Association posted a Web video that labels President Barack Obama an "elitist hypocrite" for allowing his daughters to be protected by armed Secret Service agents while not embracing armed guards for schools.

"Are the president's kids more important than yours?" a male narrator asks in the video. "Then why is he skeptical of putting armed security in schools, when his kids are protected by armed guards in their school?"

The spot, posted even before Obama unveiled his gun policy proposals on Wednesday, drew an indignant response from the White House.

"Most Americans agree that a president's children should not be used as pawns in a political fight," White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. "But to go so far as to make the safety of the president's children the subject of an attack ad is repugnant and cowardly."

The group's confrontational video bore the hallmarks of a conventional political attack ad. It uses grainy, unflattering visuals of Obama, has a grim-sounding narrator and ominous music. It also invokes a seemingly unrelated issue, Obama's insistence on a tax increase for the wealthiest Americans, as it argues that Obama is hypocritical because he's expressed skepticism about putting armed guards in schools in response to the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

The ad equates Secret Service protection provided to Obama and his family with a proposal by NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre to put armed guards in schools after the Newtown shootings. LaPierre suggested that would have prevented the shootings that ended 26 lives.

"Protection for their kids," the narrator says, "and gun-free zones for ours."

The video is part of what's expected to be an aggressive NRA lobbying push to thwart new gun regulations. The group has been raising money in response to the outcry for new gun laws. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that a fresh fundraising appeal, circulated this week by LaPierre to the group's membership, calls the current debate "the fight of the century."