Debbie Wasserman Schultz: NRA ‘Just Shy of a Terrorist Organization’
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D., Fla.) characterized the NRA as “just shy of a terrorist organization” Tuesday in response to the the contention of the group’s newly appointed president, Oliver North, that the Parkland students pushing stricter gun-control legislation are engaging in “civil terrorism.”
“The NRA is kind of just shy of a terrorist organization,” Schultz told HuffPo Tuesday. “They have done everything they can to perpetuate the culture of violence that we have in our country with the spread of assault weapons across the nation.”
Just two days after being named the next president of the NRA, North cast the outspoken Parkland survivors as criminals, accusing them of relying on “intimidation and harassment and lawbreaking” in a May 9 interview with the Washington Times.
“They call them activists. That’s what they’re calling themselves. They’re not activists — this is civil terrorism,” North said.
Wasserman Schultz took issue with North’s assertion that the NRA is facing opposition the likes of which has “never been seen against a civil-rights organization in America,” and his characterization of gun-control activists as reminiscent of “the terrible days of Jim Crow.”
“The Jim Crow laws actually resulted in the deaths of people standing up for their rights,” Wasserman Schultz said. “People that are dying as a result of the infection that is the spread of assault weapons thanks to the NRA are being murdered in cold blood without any cessation or interest on the part of the NRA to do anything about it.”
The Florida lawmaker and former chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee went on to mock North for rejecting the notion that the NRA is “on its heels,” despite the rash of negative coverage and public backlash the group has received in the wake of the Parkland shooting.
“It’s kind of like a spoiled child stamping their feet on the ground, insisting that something right in front of their face isn’t true,” she said.