March For Our Lives trolls NRA after NY lawsuit: ‘Sending thoughts and prayers’

March For Our Lives, a gun control advocacy group founded in the wake of the 2018 Parkland, Fla., school shooting, trolled the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Thursday after New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sued to dissolve the powerful pro-gun group.

Sending thoughts and prayers to the @NRA…

— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) August 6, 2020

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivors, many of whom are now nationally recognized gun control advocates, have repeatedly condemned lawmakers saying they are sending “thoughts and prayers” in the aftermath of mass shootings, calling for more concrete actions.

“The NRA has no place in this country. Not in New York, not anywhere. We won’t stand for their corrupt grasp on our broken political system,” the group said. “Thousands of young people have demanded an end to the NRA’s corruption that allows 40,000 Americans to die from gun violence every year.”

March For Our Lives praised James for making the “moral choice” to take action even though she will face backlash from gun rights activists.

“Racists and misogynists with guns don’t protect us. WE protect us, and we’ll uplift the courageous leaders who use their power to protect us from violence,” the organization wrote.

We are immeasurably grateful to @NewYorkStateAG @TishJames. She will face heat for her action but it is the moral choice. Racists and misogynists with guns don’t protect us. WE protect us, and we’ll uplift the courageous leaders who use their power to protect us from violence.

— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) August 6, 2020

Jones’s lawsuit alleges the NRA violated multiple state laws governing nonprofit organizations with “a culture of self-dealing, mismanagement and negligent oversight.”

Activist David Hogg, co-founder of March For Our Lives, said the state attorney general’s action comes a year and a half after the group first filed a complaint calling for an investigation into the NRA’s alleged illegal activity.

“Don’t ever underestimate the power of pissed off teenagers,” wrote Hogg, who survived the Parkland shooting, which left 17 people dead.

I am so happy March For Our Lives filed a complaint with the New York Attorney General over a year and a half ago Over there mis use of funds as a non profit.

Don’t ever underestimate the power of pissed off teenagers @NRA

— David Hogg Text “our power” to 954-954 (@davidhogg111) August 6, 2020

The complaint, submitted via the group’s attorneys to the New York attorney general in November 2018, alleges a “long-standing pattern of significant governance lapses at the NRA, including a pattern of related-party financial transactions over a period of years that appears to have enriched friends and relatives of key personnel in the NRA.”

The New York civil suit unveiled Thursday alleges that the NRA and four of its top officials — including CEO Wayne LaPierre — diverted millions of dollars away from its charitable mission, contributing to a loss of more $64 million over three years.

NRA President Carolyn Meadows called the lawsuit a “baseless, premeditated attack on our our organization and the Second Amendment freedoms it fights to defend.”

The legal action was announced the same day March For Our Lives dropped a new advertisement targeting young voters in nine battleground states: North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas and Colorado. 

The ad, narrated by Parkland survivor and March For Our Lives co-founder Emma González, calls for young protesters to continue the fight following nationwide protests against police brutality and racial inequality.

“When we were stuck inside we wondered, would we face the plague of gun violence again?” González says in the ad. “Will we fear gathering in our schools and our churches again? Will we be shot for the color of our skin again? But a fight for justice forced us out to fill the empty streets.”

“It’s clear the fight for racial justice is still on, and we won’t live without it,” she adds.

This morning we ran our first TV ad on Fox & Friends and Morning Joe. We’re telling those in the halls of the White House and Congress, the NRA’s boardroom, and the penthouses of 5th Avenue: young people will determine the nation’s future. #OurPower pic.twitter.com/PTghirzYDY

— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) August 6, 2020