Gun control activist slams ‘pandering’ to extremist conservatives, liberals

The president for gun control activist group Stand With Parkland criticized the U.S. for “pandering to folks on the far right and folks on the far left” as he pushed for tighter gun control laws on Sunday after a deadly mass shooting in Texas last week left 19 children and two teachers dead.

Tony Montalto, whose group formed after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that America needs to “have a look at ourselves” in the wake of the Texas tragedy.

“And what we really need is to stop the pandering to the folks on the far right and the folks on the far left,” Montalto told moderator Chuck Todd in a roundtable discussion. “Where is Congress acting on this?”

An 18-year-old gunman bought an AR-15-style rifle days before he opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, spurring renewed cries for tighter gun control laws.

Montalto on Sunday said people who use semiautomatic rifles and other high-powered firearms should “imagine what they do to the bodies of children in schools.”

During the roundtable discussion, former Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake also weighed in on the gun control reform fight, calling gun violence a “horrible problem” that is “complex” to solve, citing violent crime and gun homicides as another issue besides mass shootings.

“Part of it starts with us owning who we are as Americans,” Rawlings-Blake said. “I think sometimes we need to find mirrors that work in our country, because too many people look in the mirror and think they see someone who values life.

“But if you say you value life and you let these babies die and do nothing and you can — your mirror’s broken,” the former mayor added.

The police response to the Texas shooting has also been criticized after it was reported officers waited outside for around an hour while the gunman rampaged inside the elementary school.

The former DeKalb County, Ga., police chief, Cedric Alexander, said the officers violated training and protocol when they failed to respond swiftly.

“You go inside that building, you follow that gunfire. The whole intention here is to move that gunfire away from those innocent victims who are innocent and defenseless,” Alexander said. “There is no other option. There is nothing else to talk about.”