Nutter: NRA ad "reprehensible, disgusting"
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Nutter: NRA ad "reprehensible, disgusting"
WASHINGTON – Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter called the NRA’s ad featuring President Obama’s daughters "reprehensible, disgusting and outside the bounds of human dignity," today.
"The NRA has reached a new low in public discourse," Nutter said at a Washington hearing in which he endorsed Obama’s calls for new gun laws.
Nutter was referring to an NRA ad that called Obama an "elitist hypocrite" for allowing the Secret Service to protect his daughters at school but for expressing skepticism at the gun-rights group’s call for putting armed guards in every school.
"Are the president's kids more important than yours," a narrator asks in the ad.
UPDATE: U.S. Rep. Jon Runyan, a South Jersey Republican, also criticized the NRA ad in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
"What this discussion does not need is what we saw today from the NRA," said Runyan, who has received electoral support from the NRA in the past. "Their ad referencing President Obama’s children was at the very least inappropriate and diverts the discussion away from the important issues."
Nutter, a longtime advocate of tougher gun laws, was at the White House for Obama’s speech today unveiling his new plan, and then spoke to sympathetic House Democrats who are also backing the president's plan.
Every year in America, he said, more than 100,000 people are shot and 11,583 are murdered. Every day, he added, 50 children and teens are shot and eight die, including five who are murdered.
"If this was disease killing that many people, if this were accidents killing that many people, if this were bags of tainted spinach killing that many people, this country would immediately take swift action to stop that kind of death toll," Nutter said. "Somehow some are seemingly paralyzed when it comes to guns and violence."
In the U.S. guns are used by civilians to stop crime betwween a low of 100,000 times to a high of 4 Million times each year... sadly nobody dogidly follows this statistic.— John Law- Good arguments from each side here. I agree, the president's children shouldn't be dragged into this, so let's focus on the physical evidence of armed protection. Our kids are subject to outside threats, not as likely and often as the president's, but IS just the same - or else this argument would not be on. The way they are protected is with armed security personnel, which is proven to work or else they would do it another way. Therefore to protect our children from any more tragedies like Sandy Hook, security would be an effective means. Simply take away all the politics and see what works in our corporate buildings, VIP locations etc. and apply the same to our schools. Why is this so hard? Clips, magazines, AR-15s have nothing to do with the moment.— Danno
- Doesn't num Nut Nutter hear all the cries from the Philly Taxpayers. They think he is reprehensible and Disgusting. All his is doing is sticking up for his buddy King Obama. It was all right when Dopey Joe Said the repubs were going to keep all of our black citzens in chains??? Where was num nut when 365 of philly citizens were killed in 2012?? Wasn't that disgusting. He is a worthless individual who should go away, far away.— rduexpress
Jonathan Tamari is the Inquirer’s correspondent in Washington, where he follows the Philadelphia area’s interests and representatives. Tamari comes to D.C. after two years as a beat writer reporting on the Philadelphia Eagles and the NFL (where, a political source once told him, there are at least rules against hitting below the knees). He previously wrote about politics and government from Trenton, reporting on the characters and color of New Jersey state government.Jersey born and bred, Tamari now lives in the capital city, where he is looking for stories, places to run, soccer bars and good meals.
Reach him at jtamari@phillynews.com.
Follow Jonathan on Twitter: @JonathanTamari.
