NRA Executive Blames Charleston Pastor For His Own Murder. His Defense? Speaking As Private Citizen

A board member of the National Rifle Association (NRA) actually blames Pastor Clementa Pinckney for his own murder. What happens next boggles the mind.

On Wednesday, Pastor Clementa Pinckney and eight members of his Bible study group were gunned down by a white supremacist terrorist at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.

On Thursday, NRA board member Charles Cotton blamed the pastor for his own murder – and the deaths of his eight fellow Bible study group members.

Why?

Pastor Clementa Pinckney is also State Senator Clementa Pinckney, and as a state senator, Pinckney voted against a bill that would have allowed concealed open carry in churches. 

Cotton also runs an online forum, TexasCHLForum.com, dedicated to advancing and expanding gun “rights.” In a thread about the massacre, Cotton offered these words about Pickney:

“And he voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue.”

Of course, that’s standard NRA fare. 

Cotton’s colleague, NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre, probably would have said, “If only there had been a good guy there with a gun.”

Quickly, the media came down on Cotton for his disgusting comment.

That thread today was deleted, although NCRM took this screenshot of Cotton’s remark:

Cotton has no remorse about blaming a dead man for his own death, and the deaths of eight of his parishioners.

“In a phone interview from Texas, Cotton emphasized that his comments were made not in his capacity as an NRA board member, but as a private citizen who runs a gun discussion forum,” the Washington Post reports today.

In other words, Cotton believes his comments are acceptable because he was speaking as a private citizen.

“It was a discussion we were having about so called gun-free zones,” Cotton told the Post. “It’s my opinion that there should not be any gun-free zones in schools or churches or anywhere else. If we look at mass shootings that occur, most happen in gun-free zones.”

The Post notes that research shows Cotton’s beliefs about gun possession is false.

(NCRM Saturday is publishing a report on new research that proves Cotton’s position is incorrect.)

Meanwhile, Cotton’s comments on the late Pastor Pinckney, unsurprisingly, are not the only offensive ones.

Back in February, discussing corporal punishment of students, Cotton said, “a good paddling in school may keep me from having to put a bullet in him later.”

According to the website NRA on the Record, which tracks NRA executives and board members’ comments, Cotton has a few others he should be called to account for.

For example, in response to President Obama’s attempt to strengthen background checks for gun buyers after 20 children were massacred at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Cotton proclaimed, “Americans are not facing merely a legislative battle, but a war on our very culture and way of life.”

Of course, Cotton’s remarks are nothing compared to fellow NRA board member Ted Nugent‘s.

Right Wing Watch reports “Nugent in the past has threatened to kill President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and California Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.”

Both are still active NRA board members.

 

Hat tip: Raw Story