NRA leader: Gun control advocates exploit tragedy

WASHINGTON — Leaders of the National Rifle Association on Thursday accused gun control advocates of exploiting the deadly Florida school shooting, striking a defiant tone amid a renewed debate over guns and school safety.

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, in his first public comments since the shooting in Parkland, Fla., said NRA members mourn for the victims but at the same time issued a searing indictment of opponents of gun rights for attempting to “exploit tragedy for political gain.”

“They hate the NRA. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom,” LaPierre said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md., near the nation’s capital.

LaPierre addressed the conservative activists shortly before President Donald Trump held a listening session at the White House with state and local leaders on gun safety.

The president said he had spoken to NRA leaders and expressed optimism that the nation’s most prominent gun owners organization would support his calls for raising the federal minimum age for buying or possessing certain weapons, enhancing background checks, addressing mental illness and banning the sale of bump stock devices.

NRA leaders did not address whether the federal government should raise the age limit for young adults to buy weapons. A day earlier, the organization issued a statement saying it opposes raising the age limit.

“God help us if we don’t harden our schools and protect our kids,” LaPierre said. “The whole idea from some of our opponents that armed security makes us less safe is completely ridiculous.”

NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch said many members of the media “love mass shootings.”

“Now I’m not saying that you love the tragedy but I am saying that you love the ratings,” she said.