Newtown residents, politicians blast NRA position: 'The most revolting, tone deaf statement I’ve ever seen,' says Rep. Chris Murphy, who represents Newtown in the U.S. Congress
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Adrees Latif/Reuters
Gun-loving Wayne LaPierre took fire from all directions Friday — left, right and center.
The National Rifle Association chief’s defiant response to the massacre in Newtown outraged firearms foes, city mayors, police chiefs — and even some prominent Republicans.
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“I don’t even know where to begin,” Former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said on MSNBC. “As a supporter of the Second Amendment and a supporter of the NRA, I just found it very haunting and very disturbing that we are a country talking about arming our teachers and principals in classrooms.”
An aide to a top Senate Republican called LaPierre’s speech “dumb” and “bizarre.”
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Instead of lampooning the media, LaPierre should “have focused on the children you’re defending” not “the people you’re mad at,” said the staffer who asked not to be identified.
Among those most insulted by LaPierre’s diatribe — in which he called for armed guards at schools and railed against the media — were the still-mourning residents of Newtown.
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“How dare they?” fumed Elizabeth Murphy, 42, who lives int the town. “We are all still grieving. This is the wrong time to discuss their goal of putting more guns on the street . . . The bodies haven’t even all been buried yet.”
The speech appalled Rep. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who represents Newtown in Congress. He took to Twitter to express his fury.
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“Walking out of another (Newtown) funeral and was handed the NRA transcript. The most revolting, tone deaf statement I’ve ever seen,” tweeted Murphy, who will be sworn in as the state’s next senator in January.
LaPierre’s remarks inflamed Democrats and irked Republicans across the nation.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he believes LaPierre’s proposals make no sense.
“I don’t necessarily think having an armed guard outside every classroom is conducive to a positive learning environment,” said Christie, who is known as a moderate on social issues.
“You don’t want to make this an armed camp for kids. I don’t think that’s a positive example for children. We should be able to figure out other ways to enhance safety.”
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Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) also objected to LaPierre’s plan — sort of.
“It’s fixing the wrong problem, because the problem is cultural,” Coburn said.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), who next month will become the second ranking Senate Republican, suggested LaPierre may have reacted too emotionally to critics.
“I always think making decisions when you’re angry or scared leads to worse decisions,” said Cornyn.
But not all Republicans were up in arms over the NRA’s proposal.
Sen. Orrin Hatch praised LaPierre as “a very honorable" man and lauded his proposal to dispatch armed guards to all of the nation’s schools.
“A lot of people think that’s a good idea,” said Hatch (R-Utah).
Hatch acknowledged that gun control advocates are wrong “to work up the emotions of the people of the country,” but insisted that he doesn’t blame the NRA.
“They get upset because they’re always the punching bag,” Hatch said.
Not surprisingly, Mayor Bloomberg, one of the nation’s most prominent anti-gun crusaders, held a vastly different view.
Hizzoner blasted LaPierre’s polarizing speech as “a shameful evasion of the crisis facing our country.”
“Instead of offering solutions to a problem they have helped create, they offered a paranoid, dystopian vision of a more dangerous and violent America where everyone is armed and no place is safe,” Bloomberg said.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter dismissed LaPierre’s armed guards-in-schools idea as “insane.”
LaPierre “had clearly watched too many old Westerns,” Nutter said.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly expressed shock that LaPierre went on the attack rather than offering measures to toughen gun control laws.
“Obviously, I don’t think that’s necessarily what the world was expecting from the NRA,” Kelly said.
“I thought they were going to make some meaningful recommendations as to how we can strengthen gun control.”
Some liberal lawmakers mocked LaPierre.
“The predicted Mayan Apocalypse apparently materialized today in the form of the NRA’s vision for America,” California state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) said in a statement.
In grief-torn Newtown, several residents and others in town to honor the dead ripped LaPierre’s chest-thumping speech as insensitive and insulting.
“They are without conscience and they are cruel,” said Barnett Parker, 68. “They are unable to take ownership. It makes me crazy. It makes me freaking nuts.”
