Washington (CNN)Dana Loesch, the spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, says a shooter who killed 17 people last week at a high school in Florida should not have been able to get a firearm.
"I don't believe this insane monster should have ever been able to obtain a firearm," Loesch said Wednesday night, calling the suspect "nuts."
"We have to start ... following up on red flags," she later added.
#STUDENTSSTANDUP TOWN HALL
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Loesch, as well as Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, Florida lawmakers Rep. Ted Deutch and Sens. Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio, along with students, parents and community members, participated in the CNN town hall "Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action" in Sunrise, Florida.
The town hall came a week after 17 people were shot to death at the school in Parkland, Florida, which has prompted calls on lawmakers for gun reform -- notably from students around the country.
The NRA has given significant donations to various political candidates, including Rubio, who received two donations of $4,950 during the 2016 campaign from the NRA's political arm, The National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund.
In the wake of criticism the NRA has received following last week's tragedy, Loesch said prevention should include ensuring that dangerous individuals are not able to obtain firearms.
"This is the eighth tragedy, the eighth tragedy, where we have seen numerous tips that have been reported and red flags," she said.
Loesch reiterated that message throughout the town hall.
"This is what I'm talking about in terms of prevention and making sure that people who are dangerous should not have access to firearms, without punishing law-abiding Americans who want to be able to have that same right to defend themselves," she said.
President Donald Trump declined CNN's invitation to the town hall but sat down with individuals who were personally affected by school shootings at a listening session at the White House earlier Wednesday. There, he suggested providing firearms to swaths of teachers to prevent school shootings.
CREDIT: COURTESY OF NBC
The NRA thanked the spokeswoman who repped the gun-lobbying org at CNN’s town hall Wednesday about the Florida high-school massacre by tweeting a GIF of Amy Poehler’s character from NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation” saying “Thank you.”
But the team behind the popular show, in no uncertain terms, told the NRA it was way out of bounds.
On Twitter, Michael Schur, creator of “Parks and Rec” and an outspoken proponent of gun control, tweeted a request to the NRA to remove the image. “Hi, please take this down,” he tweeted Wednesday. “I would prefer you not use a GIF from a show I worked on to promote your pro-slaughter agenda.”
Schur added: “Also, Amy isn’t on twitter, but she texted me a message: ‘Can you tweet the NRA for me and tell them I said f— off?'” Schur’s post had more than 50,000 retweets and 188,000 likes within nine hours.
Dana Loesch, a conservative commentator and NRA spokeswoman, deflected questions from the Parkland high-school students at the event about whether the government should make it harder to obtain semiautomatic weapons.
CNN organized the town hall after last week’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., left 17 dead. It was designed to be a forum for students, families and community members to query politicians about their plans for policies to reduce the risk of extraordinary gun violence.
Nick Offerman, who played Ron Swanson on “Parks and Rec,” also laid into the NRA and Loesch. The actor-comedian tweeted at them: “@NRA @DLoesch our good-hearted show and especially our Leslie Knope represent the opposite of your pro-slaughter agenda – take it down and also please eat s—.” He ended his post with an emoji of the U.S. flag.
“Parks and Recreation” aired for seven seasons on NBC from 2009-15. The cast, led by Poehler, included Offerman, Rashida Jones, Paul Schneider, Aziz Ansari, Aubrey Plaza and Chris Pratt.
As of Thursday morning, the NRA’s tweet with the Poehler GIF remained up (with about 1,100 retweets):
Not Publish.
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