The NRA has put together an attack ad going after Parkland school shooting survivor David Hogg in particular, and the March For Our Lives in general.
In the ad, NRA TV personality Colion Noir criticizes a comment Hogg made in an ad promoting the march.
“What if our politicians weren’t the bitch of the NRA,” Hogg said.
Noir responds to Hogg’s comment with a string of his own questions, including: “What if we didn’t exploit the trauma of kids to push a political agenda? What if the media actually covered the kids that completely disagree with you? What if we had put armed guards in every school in America five years ago when the NRA first pushed for it?”
Noir goes as far as to suggest that teachers should be armed with AR-15s — the weapon the Parkland shooter used to kill 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month, despite the presence of an armed guard there.
“What if the football coach who heroically sacrificed his life had an AR-15 instead of empty hands?” Noir says, referring to Aaron Feis, an assistant football coach who died shielding Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students.
Noir attacks Hogg as “childish,” saying, “What if I told you that calling someone a bitch because they disagree with you isn’t American, it’s just childish.”
"#WhatIf we didn't exploit the trauma of kids to push a political agenda?"
–@MrColionNoir #MSM pic.twitter.com/XTb2RV9PcV— NRATV (@NRATV) March 19, 2018
It’s odd that the NRA is lecturing high school students on manners, given that Ted Nugent is a board member. Nugent called then-President Obama a “piece of shit” and a “subhuman mongrel,” and Hillary Clinton a “worthless bitch” who should “be tried for treason & hung.”
The attack ad echoes talking points used by NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch during a Fox & Friends interview last week. Loesch suggested that many of the students who participated in a nationwide anti-gun violence school walkout on March 13 are not actually be supportive of new gun control measures, but were just honoring the Parkland victims. As Noir does during the ad, Loesch smeared student protesters for purportedly being organized by anti-Semitic forces.
As ThinkProgress has detailed, in the wake of the Parkland shooting, Hogg has become a frequent target of right-wing smears.
While Hogg has been among the prominent Parkland student voices calling for gun control, the NRA has responded to the shooting by pushing for militarizing schools and arming teachers. Those proposals are supported by President Trump, who parroted the NRA’s talking points during his speech last month at CPAC.
The NRA has sued to block implementation of a new gun control bill approved by Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature in response to the Parkland shooting that raises the minimum age for purchasing a firearm to 21 from 18.