Citizens of Newtown, CT are wary of a gun group's drive to claim the one-year anniversary of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary as "Guns Save Lives Day." NBC News reported that the Second Amendment Foundation wants to use Dec. 14 as a day to promote gun ownership in the U.S., a move that strikes many in Newtown as callous and opportunistic.
”As far as I’m concerned, this is nonsense,” said resident Linda Manna to NBC. “It’s very insensitive… very insensitive."
“It’s despicable, it’s reprehensible,” said Monte Frank of the Newtown Action Alliance. “It’s not the right day. It’s pretty distasteful."
On Dec. 14, 2012, Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six school personnel with a high-powered rifle before turning the weapon on himself.
The Newtown Action Alliance is a group of Newtown residents and others who want to ensure that what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary never happens again. The group favors stiffer laws and background checks for people purchasing firearms in the U.S., as well as bans on the kinds of oversized ammunition clips and assault rifles that make such high casualty rates a part of these attacks.
The Second Amendment Foundation's Gun Save Lives Day website claims that the group's goal is to "prevent misguided gun control laws" and promote gun ownership as a means of maintaining public safety.
"No one at Newtown should have been a victim and no one in the future should be victimized by laws that do not allow people to defend themselves," said the website. "Americans are safer – from crime and tyranny – when they have the means to defend themselves."
Second Amendment Foundation founder Andy Gottlieb told NBC that he doesn't see anything offensive or insensitive about marking out the anniversary of the massacre as a pro-gun observance day.
“We're not doing anything that's insensitive at all," said Gottlieb. "Quite frankly, what we think is insensitive is attacking the law-abiding rights of gun owners coast to coast and trying to pass legislation so people can’t have the means to protect themselves.”
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