In his first public appearance since the deadly shooting in Parkland, FL, NRA President Wayne LaPierre tore into the media, the Democratic Party, and the FBI.
As part of a panel on CNN Newsroom, former mayor of Philadelphia Michael Nutter tore into the speech, calling it “30 minutes of verbal vomit.”
“[He] clearly demonstrated he has no concern for those young people at that particular school or any others,” Nutter said. “Those… are the loudest voices. And they’re not opportunists. They are survivors. They are talking about their own lives.”
“It is clear that the letters NRA stand for no real answers,” he continued. “He refused to recognize the power and the death and destruction that comes from the weapon of choice, the AR-15 in particular and others like it, with no explanation as to why someone should actually have to have a military style weapon in the first place as a civilian.”
“I’ll tell you, talk about us and them,” Lynn Sweet, Washington reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, added. “This speech was divisive [and] polarizing. “If he could possibly narrow this, the way you commit mass murder, which is the discussion the students in Florida are having…when you have an assault style weapon with a large capacity magazine…you could shoot off a lot of bullets without having to stop and reload. That’s mass murder.”
CNN’s John Berman asked Steve Cortes — a former campaign operative for President Donald Trump — to address LaPierre’s comments about those fighting for gun control with the loudest voices being “opportunists.”
“I would not call them opportunists,” Cortes said. “I think and hope what Wayne LaPierre is talking about there is people in the political system, not students who survived. I have nothing but empathy and respect for them and their voice.”
“What he did talk about is how do we protect students, and he’s right… We guard our jewelry, our money, and people like me and office buildings far better than we guard our children. Our precious children in school. And that has to change.”
Watch the full segment above, via CNN.
[image via screengrab]
