Conn. senators demand NRA 'cease and desist' making robo-calls to Newton
residents

Connecticut’s outraged senators demanded Monday that the NRA “cease and
desist” making anti-gun control robo-calls to the still grieving
residents of Newtown.

“Put yourself in the shoes of a victim’s family member who gets calls at
dinnertime asking them to support more assault weapons in our school and
on our streets,” Senators Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal wrote in a
letter to NRA chief Wayne LaPierre.

“In a community that’s still very much in crisis, to be making these
calls opens a wound that these families are still trying hard to heal.”

Murphy and Blumenthal fired off their letters after residents complained
that the NRA had been bombarding them with robo-calls just three months
after a loser armed with a Bushmaster rifle slaughtered 20 first graders
and six staffers at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

“With these robo-calls, the NRA has stooped to a new low in the debate
over how to best protect our kids and our communities,” the senators
wrote. “We call on you to immediately stop calling the families and
friends of the victims of Newtown.”

There was no immediate response from LaPierre or the NRA, which has been
trying to scuttle gun control measures currently being debated by
Connecticut’s General Assembly that would ban military-style assault
weapons and prohibit high-capacity ammunition magazines.


But it’s not the first time the powerful gun lobby has been accused of
at best having a tin ear — and, at worse, of flat-out cruelty.

A week after the Newtown massacre, with pundits predicting the NRA might
agree to “common sense” gun control tightening, LaPierre stunned the
country by declaring that “the only thing that stops a bad guy with a
gun is a good guy with a gun.”

Then, a month after Sandy Hook, the NRA released a new app that allows
players to use anything from an AK-47 to an M-16 to blast coffin-shaped
targets.

In their robo-calls, the NRA urges Newtown residents to call their local
legislator, State Sen. Art Linares, a Republican.

“Your state senator, Art Linares, will play a key role in determining
whether the CT General Assembly will pass legislation restricting your
gun rights," the call says.

“Respectfully urge him to oppose any legislation that tramples your
Second Amendment right, and inhibits your inherent right to self defense.”