At 9:20 AM ET today, hours after the Aurora, Colorado massacre that left 12 dead and 38 or more wounded, and while the rest of the nation was checking on loved ones and old friends while glued to their TV sets, Twitter feeds, Facebook timelines, and other points of contact the National Rifle Association (NRA) sent out a tweet asking, “Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?” American Rifleman is “an official journal of the National Rifle Association,” according to their Twitter page.
That tweet has since been deleted, but no apology was made.
Tone deaf? Certainly seems so.
In all fairness, the NRA could have been sending pre-scheduled tweets, but even so, some aware individual at the largest “nonprofit” in the country should have been more aware, more sensitive.
The Huffington Post reported:
Alex Fitzpatrick, a reporter for the blog Mashable, called the NRA and tweeted that a “press contact didn’t seem to be aware of @NRA_Rifleman tweet.”
The tweet was up for more than two hours, before it was deleted around noon.
The Washington Examiner’s “Secrets” column, missing the story on the tweet, noted:
With calls already coming in from CNN’s Piers Morgan and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for a new wave of gun control in the wake of the Colorado Batman shootings, the National Rifle Association has decided to lay low.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and the community. NRA will not have any further comment until all the facts are known,†a spokesman told Secrets.
Yesterday, Media Matters reported: “NRA Back In Bed With ALEC”
UPDATE: 1:34 PM ET:Â
Deadspin reports :
“Here is the official comment from the NRA regarding the tweet:
A single individual, unaware of events in Colorado, tweeted a comment that is being completely taken out of context.
So we tried to give the NRA the benefit of the doubt. They just didn’t deserve it.