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Citing Family, Hillary Clinton Affirms Gun-Control Stance

Hillary Clinton speaking in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Saturday at an event benefiting the Trayvon Martin Foundation’s Circle of Mothers.Credit...Cristobal Herrera/European Pressphoto Agency

Hillary Clinton invoked her roles as mother and grandmother on Saturday to deliver an impassioned rebuttal to Donald J. Trump’s contention that her push for stricter gun control would make families less safe, saying the presumptive Republican nominee would put more children “at risk of violence and bigotry.”

The day after Mr. Trump received the endorsement of the National Rifle Association, Mrs. Clinton assailed her probable general election rival as pandering to the group.

“I believe it’s the most powerful lobby in Washington,” Mrs. Clinton said of the N.R.A. at an event in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to benefit the Trayvon Martin Foundation’s Circle of Mothers. “And we know some candidates will say or do anything to make them happy.”

Speaking in a ballroom full of mothers who had lost children to gun violence, Mrs. Clinton defended her position on gun control and her promise to overhaul the criminal justice system.

“I love my daughter and granddaughter more than anything, and I worry about them as every mother does, and I want them always to be safe,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Parents, teachers and schools should have the right to keep guns out of classrooms, just like Donald Trump does at many of his hotels by the way.”

She mentioned his speech to the N.R.A. on Friday, which included a vow to allow teachers and principals to arm themselves. “This is someone running to be president of the United States, a country facing a gun violence epidemic, and he’s talking about more guns in our schools,” Mrs. Clinton said. “He’s talking about more hatred and violence in our streets.”

Mrs. Clinton delivered her remarks to a group named after Mr. Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old who was fatally shot in 2012 by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. Before she spoke, Mrs. Clinton sat for dinner alongside Mr. Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton.

“We will carry the memories of your sons and daughters in our hearts every day, as you do,” Mrs. Clinton told the group as she affirmed her plans to strengthen background checks and take other measures to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

Mr. Trump, speaking before N.R.A. members in Louisville, Ky., called Mrs. Clinton “the most anti-gun, anti-Second Amendment candidate ever to run for office.”

Mr. Trump said Mrs. Clinton’s policies would put women in particular danger. “You have a woman living in a community, a rough community, a bad community — sorry, you can’t defend yourself,” he told the group on Friday.

For months, Mrs. Clinton has made gun control a major issue in her Democratic primary campaign against Bernie Sanders, whose record as a senator from Vermont has been mixed on the issue. She has campaigned alongside the mothers of Eric Garner, Jordan Davis, Sandra Bland and others who have lost children in clashes with the police or to gun violence. Some of them attended the event on Saturday.

The Clinton campaign has featured these mothers and Erica Smegielski, daughter of the school principal killed in the massacre in Sandy Hook, Conn., in evocative television ads.

But as the Clinton campaign turns its focus to the fall election against Mr. Trump and as both candidates vie for the support of white voters in the Rust Belt, gun control has become less of a driving force.

A New York Times/CBS News poll in January found that 57 percent of respondents wanted stricter laws governing gun sales, and 88 percent favored background checks for all purchases.

On Saturday, Mrs. Clinton reaffirmed her commitment to both gun control and the overhaul of the criminal justice system, two issues that formed the pillars of her primary campaign and have helped her win broad support among African-Americans.

Mrs. Clinton vowed to end the “schools to prison pipeline” that affects black men. “Something is wrong when so many Americans have reason to believe that our country doesn’t consider their children as precious and worthy of protection as other children because of the color of their skins,” she said.

Mrs. Clinton also restated her promise to “end the era of mass incarceration” and to “rebuild the bonds of trust between law enforcement and communities” — issues that could resonate with voters in Los Angeles, Oakland and other California cities ahead of that state’s June 7 primary.

Christopher Mele contributed reporting.

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 22 of the New York edition with the headline: Citing Family, Clinton Affirms Gun-Control Positions and Assails Trump. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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