MSNBC’s Joy Reid told her fans Monday that the National Rifle Association has machinations of building an America where “packs of warlords” can kill at will.
The host of “AM Joy” reacted to Sunday’s church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, by claiming NRA members — over 5 million Second Amendment advocates — seek the creation of “private armies” operating outside the rule of law.
The comments came one day after 26-year-old Devin Kelley killed 26 churchgoers and wounded another 20 in a rampage reportedly linked to a domestic dispute.
“Americans are living like packs of warlords, with heavily armed people everywhere, any one of whom can kill dozens at will. This is insane,” Ms. Reid said at the start of a series of tweets. “And the @NRA has decreed that the answer to this is more warlords, hoarding more guns, like little private armies. The @NRA ethos is that everyone is your enemy. Every tribe is your enemy, and you need to be prepared to kill a lot of people all the time.”
The NRA bills itself as the “foremost defender of Second Amendment rights” for all Americans, and “the premier firearms education organization in the world.”
“What civilized country — what country not currently being invaded or facing war on its shores behaves like that?” continued the MSNBC weekend host. “And the worst part is, the vast majority of us DO NOT want to live this way. But a minority of fanatics and supine politicians force us to.”
Kelley, who was given a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force in 2014, was shot by a good Samaritan after the church shooting. A car chase ensued, which culminated with the gunman shooting himself after a car crash.
Authorities said it was not yet determined whether Kelley died of the injury sustained at the church or from his self-inflicted wound.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters that Kelley was denied a license to carry a gun in the state.
“So how was it that he was able to get a gun? By all the facts that we seem to know, he was not supposed to have access to a gun,” Mr. Abbott said Monday during a CNN interview. “So how did this happen?”
According to multiple news outlets, the Air Force did not report Kelley’s court-martial on domestic-violence charges and resulting bad-conduct discharge to the federal database that is used for gun-purchase background checks.
And the @NRA has decreed that the answer to this is MORE warlords, hoarding MORE guns, like little private armies.
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) November 6, 2017
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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