Emma Gonzalez Wins This One
NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch made false statements on behalf of the NRA at a CNN town hall Wednesday night. Loesch was asked several questions by Emma Gonzalez, a student survivor of the Parkland, Florida high school mass shooting, whose voice has become very important in the days since the massacre.
Loesch claimed that the NRA supports outlawing “bump stocks,” add-on devices that effectively make semi-automatic assault rifles into machine guns.
But in October the NRA issued a statement saying it does not support legislation banning bump stocks. It did say current law should be examined to determine if the devices are already banned under federal law.
Loesch also called the 19-year old who massacred 17 people one week ago “nuts” and “crazy,” and claimed the NRA does not support “crazy people” getting guns.
“This individual was nuts,” Loesch told Gonzalez. “None of us support people who are crazy, who are dangerous to themselves, who are a danger to others, getting their hands on a firearm.”
But the NRA supported President Donald Trump’s decision to sign a bill passed by congressional Republicans that rescinded an Obama-era law that made it more difficult for mentally challenged people to obtain guns.
Loesch herself in 2014 asserted some people aren’t mentally ill, they’re violent and should not be classified as mentally ill.
One year ago NRA executive director Chris Cox wrote an op-ed in The Hill titled “NRA: The mentally ill have gun rights, too.” Unsurprisingly, Cox has played fast and loose with characterizing the law Trump repealed that made it more difficult for the mentally ill to obtain guns.
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