Connecticut

Malloy on NRA's LaPierre: ‘He Doesn't Care How Many Die'

Governor Dan Malloy did not hold back when he was asked about the National Rifle Association Executive Vice President’s comments on how to prevent future mass shootings.

“Wayne LaPierre, quite frankly, doesn’t care how many people die as long as guns get sold,” Connecticut’s second term governor said.

LaPierre, the longtime head of the nation’s largest gun rights group, spoke during the Conservative Political Action Committee’s annual meeting in Washington DC, commonly referred to as CPAC.

They were his first comments since a gunman opened fire in a Parkland, Florida high school, killing seventeen students and staff.

LaPierre laid the blame for the shooting not on access to firearms, but instead said, “They want to sweep right under the carpet the failure of school security, the failure of family, the failure of America's mental health system and even the unbelievable failure of the FBI.”

Malloy has been a staunch advocate for more strict gun controls since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012.

The governor said the NRA has a predictable line of attack in the aftermath of a mass shooting, saying the group is far more concerned with gunmaker profits and sales than the lives of innocent civilians.

“He’s reopened the NRA emergency book to understand how you deflect a serious discussion about making Americans safer,” Malloy said.

LaPierre advocated for more armed school security guards. School security were on the premises on the day of the Parkland shooting, but the shooter managed to enter the school before being intercepted, and he later escaped undetected in a crowd of people evacuating.

LaPierre told the Washington DC crowd that “hardening” soft targets like schools was the only way to make them safer, and said, “To stop a bad guy with a gun it takes a good guy with a gun.”

Malloy said the NRA has made it clear that they want everyone to have weapons at all times.

“You know what the NRA would say? Let’s everyone have a gun, everywhere they are and we’ll all be safer. You think Syria is safer right now? You think Iraq is safer right now?”

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