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Clinton aide: Hillary not in favor of gun confiscation

A top aide to Hillary Clinton on Monday pushed back on the NRA’s charge that the Democratic presidential candidate supports “gun confiscation.”

Clinton last week said an Australian-style gun buyback program would be “worth considering” to get guns off the streets.

{mosads}That brought a rebuke from the NRA.

“Hillary Clinton’s extreme views are completely out of touch with the American people,” Chris Cox, the NRA’s top lobbyist, said in a statement Friday.

“The real goal of gun control supporters is gun confiscation. Hillary Clinton, echoing President Obama’s recent remarks on the same issue, made that very clear,” Cox said.

Asked during a Monday interview if Clinton was suggesting the confiscation of guns, Clinton communications director Jen Palmieri said, “Of course not.”

“What she was referring to is places where there have been mass shootings and the countries have done something to act on it,” Palmieri said on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

Palmieri went on to discuss Clinton’s support for tougher background checks on gun sales, describing the Democrat as supporting “very common-sense measures that the majority of the public supports.”

Palmieri indicated Monday that Clinton likes the idea of gun buy-backs.

“Yes, a number of cities do do that, and it’s been effective,” Palmieri said. 

The Australian government purchased around 650,000 guns from citizens as part of its 1996 program that included mandatory buybacks for newly banned weapons.