National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch on Sunday blamed the Broward County Sheriff’s Office for "dereliction of duty" in the Feb. 14 mass shooting at a Parkland, Fla., high school that killed 17 people.
In an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” lashed out at reported missteps and inaction by the sheriff’s office both before and during the rampage by shooter Nikolas Cruz at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
“[T]his all stems from their dereliction of duty,” she said about the sheriff’s office. “And I know they say now it’s 23 times that they had called in, in addition to two FBI tips and numerous reports from classmates” about Cruz’s troubling behavior.
“And under Florida law, they actually had the authority to go and arrest that individual before anything could be done and I wish that as much attention were given to the Broward County Sheriff and their abdication of duty as trying to blame 5 million innocent law-abiding gun owners all across the country for this,” she declared.
She also defended the weapon used in the attack, an AR-15 — and appeared to predict they’d be “in that school protecting students and teachers.”
“People keep calling these weapons of war,” she said. “This thing originated in the civilian market before it was adapted by the military. This is really a discussion about banning all semi-automatic firearms. And I wish that we could be genuine in our discussion of that.”
“And AR-15s are going to be in that school protecting students and teachers when they return back to class,” she added.
President Donald Trump has called for arming teachers to protect students and themselves to prevent mass shootings.
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