The National Rifle Association is commenting on NFL player Ray Rice's violent attack on his then-fiancée, speciously claiming that gun safety advocates are “providing an example to young men that it's okay to beat women as long as you can throw a football.” This wild attack comes as the NRA is actively opposing legislation in the U.S. Senate to take guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and stalkers.

The NRA weighed in on controversy surrounding Rice in a September 17 video commentary narrated by NRA News commentator Colion Noir.

Noir sought to contrast how the New Jersey judicial system has treated Rice -- who was allowed to enter a pre-trial intervention program despite video evidence showing him knocking his then-fiancée unconscious -- and the case of Pennsylvania resident Shaneen Allen.

In 2013, Allen was arrested after being found in possession of a handgun during a traffic stop in New Jersey. Allen's weapon was legally registered in Pennsylvania, where she lived, but she was apparently unaware that New Jersey does not recognize Pennsylvania concealed carry permits.

Due to mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines that could put Allen in prison for years, critics on the right and left have brought attention to the case as an example of overzealous prosecution. In a recent development, prosecutors are reviewing the charge against Allen to determine if she can avoid jail time and enter a pre-trial intervention program; a seemingly equitable outcome for this inadvertent violation of the law.

While criticizing the manner in which Allen's case has been handled, Noir made a bizarre leap of logic to claim that “all anti-gunners around the world” are “providing an example to young men that it's okay to beat women as long as you can throw a football of course,” because of the Ray Rice case. Noir also claimed that “anti-gun utopia” is a world where “a mother of two kids, is faced with three years in jail for trying to protect herself, but isn't afforded the same second chance that some knuckle-dragging hothead who 'Tiger Uppercuts' his fiancée into a momentary coma is given."

Noir's claims about gun safety groups and domestic violence bear little semblance to reality. In fact the top federal legislative priorities of gun safety groups are currently bills to prevent domestic abusers from buying and possessing firearms. Legislation introduced by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) would expand the current definition of “intimate partner” to include non-spousal relationships and prohibit individuals convicted of stalking offenses from owning guns.

In June, The Huffington Post obtained a letter that the NRA was quietly circulating throughout the Senate that argued senators should oppose Klobuchar's proposal because it “manipulates emotionally compelling issues such as 'domestic violence' and 'stalking' simply to cast as wide a net as possible for federal firearm prohibitions.”

NRA News, which publishes the NRA News Commentator series, has previously weighed in on a domestic violence case. In March 2013, NRA News host Cam Edwards called for the dismissal of an illegal gun possession charge faced by New York linen mogul George Bardwil, who was caught with a gun while on trial for domestic violence charges. In July 2014, Bardwil was convicted on charges of slamming his ex-wife's head into the ground after she refused to have sex with him. His gun charge is pending.

NRA News also gave a platform to Washington D.C. resident Mark Witaschek while he faced charges of possession of unregistered ammunition. During at least 11 segments, host Edwards and conservative guests argued Witaschek was being unfairly prosecuted, setting to the side he was caught with unregistered ammo by police who were investigating an allegation he threatened his estranged wife with a gun.

Noir's commentary (emphasis added):

NOIR: What kind of perverted political dogma could possibly justify throwing a single parent mother of two in jail for an honest mistake that hurt no one. But then turn around and let a man who beat his fiancée so bad he couldn't lift her limp body out of an elevator back out on the street. This is disgusting. This woman was robbed twice on her way to work in order to provide for her kids and you want to turn this woman into a felon for trying to protect herself? What do you think is going to happen to these kids, when they have to live without their mother for the next three years and then possibly have to live in poverty because momma can't find a job because she's now a felon? Thank you New Jersey, [New Jersey prosecutor] Jim McClain, and all anti-gunners around the world for perpetuating the very cycle that contributes to the violence in this country, all the while providing an example to young men that it's okay to beat women as long as you can throw a football of course. So is this what the anti-gun utopia looks like? A bunch of confusing inarticulate gun laws turning more good people into criminals than actually catching criminals?

[...]

Then you have these sophomoric anti-gun groups like Moms Demand Action too busy worried about open carriers in Kroger and Target when the very person you all claim you are trying to protect, a mother of two kids, is faced with three years in jail for trying to protect herself, but isn't afforded the same second chance that some knuckle-dragging hothead who 'Tiger Uppercuts' his fiancée into a momentary coma is given. Welcome to anti-gun utopia.