MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell went after the NRA's Wayne LaPierre after he attempted to exploit the Boston Marathon bombings with his claim that more of the city's residents would have liked to have had a gun while the manhunt for the suspects was going on.
Cops–not NRA’s armed citizenry–stopped terrorists in Boston:
“How many Bostonians wished they had a gun two weeks ago?” National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre asked an audience Saturday at the gun lobbying group’s annual convention in Houston, Texas. LaPierre argued more guns in the hands of Bostonians would have helped in the city-wide manhunt for the marathon bombing suspects and protect residents.
O’Donnell said that comment was “spoken like a man who knows nothing about Boston.” The Last Word host said guns could not have stopped the tragedy that unfolded following the deadly attack.
“If every man, woman and child at the finish line of the Marathon had a gun, it would have done them absolutely no good when the bombs went off: the three dead would still have been killed, all of the injured and maimed would still have suffered the same injuries and the people who weren’t injured would not have reached for their guns; they would’ve rushed to help the injured just like all the gun-toting police officers did,” said O’Donnell. “No one with a gun would’ve taken a shot at the bombers because no one knew who the bombers were.”
O’Donnell also slammed LaPierre’s concluding remarks on the Boston bombing tragedy. “He uses Boston as a device to get him to his punchline: ‘Good guys with guns stopped terrorists with guns.’ The proverbial NRA good guy with a gun is a citizen with a gun, not a police officer. There is no debate in this country about police officers having guns,” said O’Donnell. “The NRA’s cause, its mission, is about making sure everyone can get any kind of gun and ammunition they want.”
The facts show “it was not Wayne LaPierre’s armed citizenry that stopped the terrorists in Boston,” O’Donnell said. “It was the Watertown police. All six of them. Plus a Transit officer who got shot.”
