NRA spokeswoman calls the Parkland gunman an 'insane monster' who should never have gotten a gun

REUTERS/Michael Laughlin/Pool

National Rifle Association spokesperson Dana Loesch (R) answers a question while sitting next to Broward Sheriff Scott Israel during a CNN town hall meeting, at the BB&T Center, in Sunrise, Florida, U.S. February 21, 2018.

• Dana Loesch, a spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association took some pointed questions during a raucous CNN town-hall event on gun violence Wednesday night.
• The gathering featured students, educators, politicians, law-enforcement officials and others who spoke on the deadly mass shooting that rocked Parkland, Florida, last week, and possible solutions going forward.
• The discussion went off the rails at several points, especially during the segment that featured Loesch and the Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who confronted the NRA spokeswoman on stage.

The National Rifle Association spokeswoman, Dana Loesch, took some heat at a town-hall event on gun violence Wednesday night, which featured impassioned dialogue between students, parents, educators, and politicians.

The discussion at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida, had been heated from the start, but seemed to hit a fever pitch once Loesch argued on behalf of the NRA.

Emma Gonzalez, one of the most vocal survivors of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, asked Loesch whether she believes it should be more difficult for people to obtain semi-automatic weapons and modifications like bump stocks that can mimic fully automatic weapons.

"I don't believe that this insane monster should have ever been able to obtain a firearm, ever" Loesch said, referring to the 19-year-old Parkland gunman Nikolas Cruz. "I do not think that he should have gotten his hands on any kind of weapon."

"This individual was nuts, and I - nor the millions of people that I represent as a part of this organization that I'm here speaking for - none of us support people who are crazy, who are a danger to themselves, who are a danger to others, getting their hands on a firearm," Loesch said.

The NRA spokeswoman insisted that she is fighting for survivors like Gonzalez, so they won't have to "be in this position again."

That comment apparently did not sit well with some of the attendees, including Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who challenged Loesch on the assertion: "You're not standing up for them until you say, 'I want less weapons,'" Israel said, amid raucous cheering and applause.

Loesch, at points, highlighted some missed red flags she said contributed to allowing people like Cruz, to fly under the radar, but Israel pushed back, insisting that law-enforcement officers worked to the best of their ability in that regard.

Israel added that officials "need the power to take people out of their homes" under Florida state law if their behaviors indicate that they may be a danger to themselves or others.

The debate over how much culpability to apply to gun-advocacy groups like the NRA has been fraught and largely unresolved, even as mass-shootings have increased in regularity in the US.