Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Clinton Campaign Invites American Hunters & Shooters Association to Discuss Obama's Call to Ban Handguns

Obama campaign holding call at 11am Eastern today with pro-gun group to vouch for Obama's guns record

Will group comment on Obama's previous support to ban all handguns?

"It will be interesting to learn how the American Hunters & Shooters Association feels about Senator Obama's previous position to ban the manufacture, sale, and possession of all handguns," Clinton Montana state director Matt McKenna said. "It's awfully hard to shoot a gun if you're not allowed to have one."

In a questionnaire submitted to win the endorsement of Independent Voters of Illinois - Independent Precinct Organization for his state senate bid in 1996, Sen Obama was asked:

"Do you support state legislation to: ban the manufacture, sale, and possession of handguns?"

He responded: "Yes."

While Sen Obama's presidential campaign initially tried to claim that Sen Obama had not actually filled out the survey (citing a rogue aide instead), the Politico reports:

During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion - positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he has projected during his presidential campaign.

The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group's detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.

Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama's answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he "never saw or approved" the questionnaire.

They asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who "unintentionally mischaracterize[d] his position."

But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago nonprofit group that issued it. And it found that Obama - the day after sitting for the interview - filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama's own handwritten notes added to one answer.

The two questionnaires, provided to Politico with assistance from political sources opposed to Obama's presidential campaign, were later supplied directly by the group, Independent Voters of Illinois - Independent Precinct Organization. Obama and his then-campaign manager, who Obama's campaign asserts filled out the questionnaires, were familiar with the group, its members and its positions, since both were active in it before Obama's 1996 state Senate run.