Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy (D) this week accused the National Rifle Association (NRA) of acting like a “terrorist organization.”
“They act, quite frankly, in some cases, as a terrorist organization,” Malloy said, according to Fox61. “’You want to make safer guns? We will boycott your company.’ That’s who they are. That’s what they do.”
He added that the group had evolved into an entirely different organization than it had been just a couple of decades ago.
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“The NRA today is a far cry from the NRA that in 1999 said that teachers shouldn’t carry weapons in schools,” Malloy said. “Or in the ’90s said we should have universal background checks. They have, in essence, become a terrorist organization.”
Malloy was governor during the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and has pushed for stricter gun laws in the years since then.
Malloy was weighing in on Hartford, Conn., Mayor Luke Bronin’s call for state lawmakers to remove mentions of the NRA from the state’s laws.
State residents seeking a firearm permit must undergo safety training and be certified. The NRA is listed in state law as one of the valid providers of training available to residents.
The NRA hit back at the governor’s comments, saying the group is “comprised of over five million law-abiding citizens many of whom are teachers, doctors, policeman, farmers, moms and dads residing in Connecticut. So let’s be clear Governor Malloy just called tens of thousands of his constituents terrorists.”
“Public safety isn’t improved by eliminating the NRA training and standards for Connecticut’s permit holders or by calling people who disagree with you terrorists,” NRA spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said in the statement.
Debates over gun laws have resurfaced in the weeks since the mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school last month. Student survivors of the shooting have helped reignite the national debate on gun control and have called for people to take on the NRA.
President Trump has also called on lawmakers to stand up to the group, but also offered his support for the organization that endorsed him during the 2016 election, calling them “patriots.”