The National Rifle Association’s Facebook fans weren’t too happy when they learned former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was renewing her push for increased background checks on gun purchases. That’s no surprise. However, they sank to a new low by making appalling death threats against Giffords.
Last week, Giffords returned to Capitol Hill to garner support for a bill that would not only close the gun show loophole, but also mandate background checks for online gun purchases. The NRA’s online team responded by sharing an article from Andrew Breitbart’s site on its Facebook and Twitter feeds. That article mocked Giffords’ call for more background checks by noting that the man who nearly killed her in 2011, Jared Loughner, passed a background check as well. The NRA was deservedly slammed for what amounted to a one-two punch below the belt. The (New York) Daily News, for instance, denounced the NRA for stooping to “a new low in its disgusting war against gun laws.” It was at least as inaccurate as it was insensitive. As Slate’s Alec MacGillis pointed out, those pushing for tougher background checks are aware that while they may not stop every mass shooting, they’ll at least make it harder for people to get guns when they have no business having them.
You’d have thought the NRA and its supporters couldn’t have sunk lower than that. Well, you thought wrong. The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence happened on the NRA’s Facebook feed, and found that several of the NRA’s Facebook fans actually went as far as to issue vicious and graphic threats against Giffords’ life. Other posters openly wished that Giffords had died that day in Tucson, and at least two hinted how they would have done the job differently from Loughner. A few samples:
“leave our guns alone, or else”
“Might have to shoot her again!”
“Leave the constitutional alone or were coming after you”
“The guy missed. Down and left would have done the trick.”
“Dipshit used a hard ball which made a neat little round hole”
This is unacceptable. Period, full stop. Almost as unacceptable is the NRA’s response to this behavior–or rather, lack thereof. Unless I’m very wrong, as I write this, no one from the NRA has apologized for these ugly posts. Indeed, as I write this, all but one of the threats that the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence was able to publicly track is still publicly viewable. The most benign interpretation of this is that the NRA’s Facebook team has been asleep at the switch since posting this on Wednesday night.
I realize that the Second Amendment absolutist crowd considers Giffords a traitor. After all, before the shooting, Giffords opposed gun control. But does Wayne LaPierre have the basic decency to condemn these type of threats? After being silent on this for almost two days, I’m starting to wonder if he does. If LaPierre isn’t willing to speak out, perhaps the gun makers who write his paycheck ought to make him do so.
