The National Rifle Association said it is "shameful" for President Obama to exploit Wednesday's deadly shooting in San Bernardino to push his gun control agenda, adding that the group is "sick and tired" of the president suggesting that its members are somehow to blame.
"The National Rifle Association is not to blame. Neither is our Second Amendment freedom. An act of evil unfolded in California. President Obama used it not as a moment to inform or calm the American people; rather, he exploited it to push his gun control agenda," Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA's Institute for Legislative Action, wrote in an op-ed published in USA Today.
"The NRA is calling on the president to stop exploiting tragedies to push his failed political agenda," he wrote. "It's shameful. Given the reality that he's unlikely to listen, however, we will continue to stand and fight for law-abiding gun owners who are both disgusted and heartbroken by these heinous acts - whether committed by madmen, gang members or terrorists."
On Wednesday, two shooters - Tashfeen Malik, 27, and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook, 28 - stormed the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino and killed 14 people. The two were killed in a shootout with police hours later. Law enforcement officials revealed Friday that Malik pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group shortly before the attack, as HNGN previously reported.
Obama and other Democrats, as usual, immediately called for tighter gun laws, according to the Washington Examiner. Cox, however, argues that California already has those gun laws in place, but they didn't appear to stop the shooting.
"Policy discussions should be intellectually honest and based on facts, not politics. And the fact remains that California has already adopted President Obama's gun control wish list: 'universal' background checks, registration, waiting periods, gun bans, magazine bans and an expansion of prohibited gun categories. But those laws did nothing to prevent this horrific crime from taking place. Nothing," Cox said.
"Here's another fact: the president's failed foreign policy has made us less safe," Cox added.
It's not the NRA that regularly gives guns to terrorists, but rather the Obama administration, The Hill noted, recalling the "Operation Fast and Furious scandal between 2009 and 2010, when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, under direction from officials at the highest levels of the Obama Justice Department, approved and sanctioned the sale of more than 2500 AK-47s, .50-caliber rifles and a number of handguns to violent Mexican narco-terrorists. The secret program, which was eventually exposed by ATF whistleblower John Dodson, ended in December 2010 when Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed in Arizona. Firearms from Fast and Furious were left at the scene."
The Obama administration also regularly arms and trains so-called "moderate rebels" who are fighting to overthrow the Syrian government, which is considered terrorism. The guns often end up in the hands of even more radical terrorists when the U.S.-backed rebels defect or surrender to groups like the Islamic State group, according to the International Business Times.
Sometimes the administration accidentally airdrops weapons directly to the Islamic State, according The Washington Post.
"The plain truth is that the president cannot keep us safe. And his policies would leave us defenseless. That's why our Second Amendment right to defend ourselves must be protected. It's not just a constitutionally guaranteed freedom. It's a natural, God-given, human right," Cox wrote, concluding, "President Obama's response is not one of unity, but rather a condescending lecture that we need more laws to restrict us from defending ourselves."
