Washington – President Donald Trump’s appearance at the National Rifle Association’s national convention provoked Sen. Chris Murphy to launch a tweetstorm Friday urging people to turn off the president’s speech and reflect on victims of gun violence instead.
“@realDonaldTrump about to take stage at NRA, to celebrate right of criminals to own guns, to glorify weapons that kill,” Murphy tweeted. “Here’s my advice. Turn off cable. Don’t watch @realDonaldTrump‘s NRA speech. Instead, think about who we are fighting for.”
As Trump took the stage, Murphy also tweeted photos of a number of victims of gun violence, including 6-year olds Ana Marquez-Greene, Dylan Hockley and Benjamin Wheeler and 7-year old Daniel Barden, all victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.
Trump was the first sitting president to address the NRA’s national meeting held in Atlanta, since former President Ronald Reagan addressed the group in 1983.
To a cheering crowd, Trump said an “eight-year assault” on Second Amendment rights had come to a “crashing end” with his election.
“No longer will federal agencies be coming after law-abiding gun owners. No longer will the government be trying to undermine your rights and freedoms as Americans,” the president said.