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NRA Tweets Photo Of Bullets Next To Photos Of Two New York Lawmakers, NYC Mayor De Blasio Outraged

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 10:22 PST, Jan 5, 2016

The National Rifle Association (NRA) tweeted a photo of bullets next to photos of two anti-gun New York lawmakers, drawing harsh criticism from the lawmakers themselves as well as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the New York Daily News is reporting.

The tweet shows State Sen. Roxanne Persaud and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, both Democrats. Both lawmakers are behind a proposed bill, called the SAFE Act, that would limit ammunition purchases to twice the capacity of a gun owner’s firearm during a 90-day period.

The tweet links to a blog post in America’s 1st Freedom, a magazine published by the NRA. The post is highly critical of both the lawmakers and the bill.

“In truth, this is one of the most ridiculous anti-gun schemes I’ve seen in some time. Anyone who shoots on even a halfway regular basis knows that a single training day at the range requires far more than just a handful of ammo. But Sen. Persaud and Assemblywoman Simon simply don’t care about that—they greatly dislike gun owners and want to make life harder for them, to hell with the consequences.”

Both lawmakers expressed their outrage at the tweet.

Persaud said the picture has “the potential to cause harm” because someone who opposes her proposal may see it and be inspired to actually shoot her.

“I think it is irresponsible in the times that we are living in to place a target around someone. By placing someone’s picture with bullets next to them you are playing on the fears of people.”

Simon, similarly, called the tweet “irresponsible.”

“They are clearly trying to be intimidating and it is not working.”

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio was similarly disgusted by the tweet, and said so in a tweet of his own.

As the Daily News notes, the tweet featuring the bullets comes just a few days before the fourth anniversary of the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle (Gabby) Giffords. On January 8, 2011, a mentally ill man named Jared Lee Loughner shot Giffords in the head at point-blank range, before opening fire on the crowd and killing six people, including a nine-year-old girl. To this day, no motive has been given for the crime; however, a Bloomberg article from the time suggested then-Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, bore at least some of the blame. Palin had posted a map of the United States with crosshairs — such as would be found in a gun’s sighting mechanism — over states with lawmakers Palin hoped would be defeated in an upcoming election. One such state was Giffords’ state, Arizona.

Miraculously, Giffords survived the assassination attempt and, after resigning from Congress to focus on her recovery, continues to advocate for gun control.

Although the tweet remains up as of this writing (6:30 p.m. Eastern Time January 5), it is not clear if, or for how long, it will remain. Officially, Twitter has a policy forbidding threatening tweets, although whether or not the NRA’s tweet is a threat is, of course, a matter of interpretation. As of this writing, Twitter has not commented on the tweet.

Representatives for the NRA have also not commented on the tweet.

Do you think the NRA tweet featuring the two lawmakers and bullets is a threat? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]

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