NRA executive suggests slain Charleston pastor to blame for gun deaths

[Jazzy]

A National Rifle Association executive in Texas has come under fire for suggesting that a South Carolina lawmaker and pastor slain with eight members of his congregation bears some of the blame for his opposition to permitting concealed handguns in church.

Houston-based lawyer Charles Cotton, listed as a national NRA board member on the gun lobby's website, made the comments in an online chat room he administers called texaschlforum.com, a discussion board devoted to gun rights and firearms issues.

In an online thread about Wednesday night's mass shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Church in Charleston, Cotton said that one of the nine people slain, church pastor and Democratic state Senator Clementa Pinckney, had voted against legislation in 2011 that would have allowed concealed possession of handguns in restaurants, day-care centers and churches.

"Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead," Cotton wrote.

The comments, since deleted from the online forum but ricocheted across social media in cached versions, triggered a torrent of online condemnation, with hundreds of posts bombarding Cotton's Twitter handle branding him a "monster" and "insensitive."

Cotton did not respond to requests from Reuters seeking comment. But The Washington Post quoted him on Friday as saying that the online discussion that generated the controversy was about the pros and cons of "gun-free zones," and his comments were made as a private citizen."It's my opinion that there should not be any gun-free zones in schools or churches or anywhere else. If we look at mass shootings that occur, most happen in gun-free zones," he told the newspaper.

Thoughts about what he said?

 

[DrLeftover]

Known soft target.

The kind the bad guys, and liberals, love.

 

[Webster]

Thoughts about what he said?

Idiot.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

I fully 100% agree that rule may have been the reason why no one else was armed. But just like the church had every right to say no weapons they had every right to decide if they wanted to enter a church with those rules.

I used to conceal carry on certain occasions but now I carry everywhere with no exceptions except the places like federal buildings that would get me arrested. Even in places that say no weapons in places like the mall I carry. If for some unknown reason they might find out the only thing they can do under the law is ask me to leave.