Georgia Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff regularly is giving mixed messages about his gun control positions.
Ossoff, a filmmaker, is currently running against Republican Sen. David Perdue. The last time Ossoff ran for Congress was in 2017, when he mounted a failed bid against Republican Karen Handel for Georgia’s 6th Congressional District during a special election.
He routinely declared his views on firearms in the past, which aligns with the Democratic Party and was endorsed this election cycle by gun control groups such as Every Town for Gun Safety and the Brady Campaign. Additionally, Ossoff has an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association, often considered to be a badge of honor by those who oppose the NRA’s advocacy of the Second Amendment.
During an MSNBC interview with Hallie Jackson in September 2019, he told Jackson his views on mandatory firearm buyback programs as well as other firearm restriction measures, saying, “I don’t know about a mandatory buyback. I support strict licenses for all semi-automatic weapons, universal background checks. I think assault weapons shouldn’t be available to the general public.”
However, on Tuesday, the Ossoff camp released a political ad running outside of the largest market in the state (Atlanta) and airing in rural markets such as Savannah. In the ad, Ossoff is heard saying:
“Nothing’s more important than keeping Georgians safe. I’ll fight for Georgia’s military bases. I’ll defend our Second Amendment. And police officers put their lives on the line to protect us. Of course, I don’t support defunding the police.”
Ossoff, however, said of police funding during a June interview on The Rashad Richey Morning Show, “You have to have national standards for the use of force, and yeah, you’ve got to be able to hold individual officers and entire departments accountable, and there also has to be funding for those departments on the line.”
National Republican Senatorial Committee spokeswoman Paige Lindgren responded to Ossoff’s political ad, saying in a statement:
“This has become too typical of lying liberal Jon Ossoff, as he is now trying to cover up his radical anti-Second Amendment record from Georgians. His false claims and lies about protecting the Second Amendment are an effort to pander to one audience in part of the state while appeasing to his base in another.”
