Following Barack Obama’s Pennsylvania seeming assertion that bitterness was linked to gun ownership, Hillary Clinton seized the opportunity and attacked saying “You know, Americans who believe in the 2nd Amendment believe it’s a matter of Constitutional rights.”

Clinton of course, has a lengthy history of supporting massive gun control legislation. Today Drudge points to a this 1999 New York Times article where Clinton “‘called for voters ‘to give them [The Senate] the encouragement to do what they know is right and to remind them that there are many, many millions of American voters and citizens who will stand behind political leaders who are brave enough to buck the gun lobby, wherever that may take us, so that they will vote for the measures that we know will save lives.”

Clinton has always been a supporter of creating measures to keep guns away from children, criminals and the mentally unbalanced. She has also supported legislation to force the license and registration of all handguns.

Meanwhile, as the Boston Globe notes, Clinton has been doing everything possible lately to circumvent the issue of gun control while now pitching a more moderate vision.

Both candidates have been treading lightly on the issue hoping to court new voters, especially those in rural areas. With that said, I don’t know that either can really claim to have the kind of legislative or personal history dealing with gun ownership that allows them to attack the other or would be taken seriously by those who believe gun ownership is both a right and a cultural experience for children and adults.