The National Rifle Assocation has reportedly made multiple robocalls to Connecticut residents, urging them to stand against state legislative attempts to pass stricter gun laws, including a more expansive assault weapons ban and 10-round limit for magazines, CNN reported.
Two senators, Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy were so angered by the incessant calling, they wrote a letter directly to the NRA condemning the orrganization for their actions. They believed the bombardment of calling residents in the home state where the the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December was beyond reproach; it was insensitive.20 children and 6 adults were killed at the elementary school in Newtown, inn addition to the gunman, Adam Lanza, killing his mother, before killing himself.
"We call on you to immediately stop calling the families and friends of the victims in Newtown," the senators wrote.
Newtown residents are are planning to protest outside the NRA's outpost in the same Connecticut town on Thurday. The demonstration is set to begin at around 4:30 p.m. at the National Shooting Sports Foundation - 3 miles from the school.
The NRA's tactics are "incomprehensible and repulsive," said Dave Ackert of The Newtown Action Alliance.
The NRA, responded earlier this week, via their own statement in defense of the calls.
"The [NRA] has members, contributors and supporters in Connecticut who expect us to do our jobs and keep them abreast of developments on the legislative front in their state," Andrew Arulanandam, the director of public affairs said. "We provide the same service for our members and supporters all around the country."
Senators Blumenthal and Chris Murphy urged the group to remove Newtown from its call list. "In a community that's still very much in crisis, to be making these calls opens a wound that these families are still trying hard to heal," the senators wrote in the letter.
The NRA supports a bill to get the records of those adjudicated mentally incompetent and dangerous into the background check system for gun dealers, but gun control advocates think the organization is too out of the mainstream in a nation plagued by gun violence.
