As Florida Shooting Unfolded, NRA Was Promoting 'Buy Your Loved One A Gun' Twitter Post

[DonViejo]

Source: Newsweek Magazine

AS FLORIDA SHOOTING UNFOLDED, NRA WAS PROMOTING 'BUY YOUR LOVED ONE A GUN' TWITTER POST

BY RYAN SIT ON 2/15/18 AT 11:18 AM

The National Rifle Association was promoting a Valentine's Day–themed tweet on Wednesday that urged its nearly 500,000 followers to "buy your loved one a gun" as a teenager in Florida was opening fire on his former high school classmates with an AR-15 assault rifle.

The NRA retweeted a post by Kimber Firearms that featured a photo of a heart-shaped pillow with matching handguns lying on it on Wednesday morning, according to the Internet archiving website the Wayback Machine. The gun advocacy organization's retweet was live at 3:49 p.m. EST. By 7 p.m. EST, the retweet had been deleted, Business Insider reported.



According to the timestamp, the post would have been deleted within hours of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The Broward County Sheriff's Office Link to tweet
" target="_blank">alerted the public via Twitter at 2:53 p.m. of the active shooter situation at the school. By 4:30 p.m., police had arrested the alleged gunman, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz. Cruz was charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder early Thursday, according to the sheriff's office.

The NRA told Newsweek that the organization did not delete the tweet, Kimber Firearms did. The Kimber Firearms tweet appears to have been reposted from an Instagram account belonging to a gun shop out of Pensacola, Florida. That post, by the account Jims_Firearms_of_Florida, was originally published on February 2 and remains active.

Read more: http://www.newsweek.com/nra-gun-sales-florida-school-shooting-808128

[ffr]

1. No words.

[pangaia]

2. Well, fuck Kimber Firearms and Jim's Firearms and anybody firearms.

Why is it called a FIRE- ARM anyway... it's a freakin' GUN!

[Rural_Progressive]

3. Actually it's a weapon

but as I was lectured to by one of our local gun whack jobs who sells all sorts of weapons, they don't like to refer to these devices by any other name but "firearm" because of the negative connotations of calling them a weapon.

and now you know the rest of the story.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Weapons for tots has to be the vile NRA's most evil profiteering.

[pangaia]

8. Well, I must agree with you there.

However, I prefer to call it a gun, to differentiate it from other weapons, such as the katana or wakizashi. or baseball bat or howitzer.
And the, to me anyway, different relationship between the person wielding the weapon and the weapon.

And not too many people, in the USR, anyway, go around killing other people with katanas, baseball bats or howitzers.


Now I am getting in too deep for my own good.

[Rural_Progressive]

9. What I know about such things I learned from my father

and a stint at USCG boot camp. Dad called them weapons and our Company Commander called them weapons and that's good enough for me. They have one purpose and one purpose only, to kill. Sometimes they are necessary. We live in a very rural part of north central WA. We raise hogs and sheep. We have fences, we have passive predator deterrent lights, we have livestock guardian dogs but from time to time it becomes necessary for me to bring out my "Rancher's Friend" and send a warning shot in the direction of coyotes, cougars, and bears who become a little too curious and approach the livestock too closely.

At best they are tools and I am no more attached to them than I am to my table saw, tractor, or air compressor. You buy only what you need, make sure they are good quality, take appropriate care of them so you don't need to replace them, store them safely, and make sure you practice enough with them so you aren't at risk when you need to use them.

These whack jobs and their obsession with these weapons are a clear and present danger to people in urban areas. Out here in the country they are necessary tools that family members are trained to use safely. Can't remember the last time I heard of anyone in my neck of the woods shooting themselves or anyone else out of ignorance or stupidity.

Not sure what can be done to respect everybody's rights and needs but clearly with 18 mass shootings in the first 6 weeks of the year something must be done.

[pangaia]

10. well-stated. And I can certainly agree with you.

[appalachiablue]

4. Sickening, mercenary operators trolling for more $ and supporters.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Glorifying militancy just like the Trump Military Parade

[Locrian]

11. they're already here....

All the worry about terrorists, isis, etc.
The the GOP fear and hate mongering

But they're already here.... the NRA, the bought and sold politicians, the white supremacists, the angry males.
The terrorists are already here...