Here Are Some Politicians Expressing Grief for the Parkland Victims, and Here’s How Much $$ They Take from the NRA

By Shane Ryan  |  February 15, 2018 | 8:45am
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Politics Features Parkland Shooting
Here Are Some Politicians Expressing Grief for the Parkland Victims, and Here’s How Much $$ They Take from the NRA

You’ve heard the news by now—17 people were killed at a high school in Parkland, FL when a shooter opened fire with what appears to be an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. The saddest part is how unsurprising it all is, and we’ve already gone through the normal beats of the story, from the horrific details to the outpourings of grief to the outrage at the state of gun control in America to the counter-arguments from the “good guy with a gun” crowd to the hopeless sense that nothing can be done.

Republican politicians, from Florida and around the country, were some of the first to express sorrow and offer prayers to the victims and their families. But these same politicians are also among the biggest recipients of money from the National Rifle Association, an organization that fights against every type of gun control tooth and nail, and has enormous success doing so. Here are just a few examples:

Despite the inescapable sense that nothing will change, we believe it’s worth highlighting the hypocrisy of the men and women who give “heartfelt” condolences with one hand while taking NRA money with the other. And it’s very much a Republican issue—in the Senate, the top 51 recipients of NRA money are all Republicans.

Enormous credit goes out to Bess Kalb, Eric Walker, Igor Volsky, and Molly Knight others—for juxtaposing the sympathetic tweets with the toxic reality of their NRA entanglements.

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