Dana Loesch, the national spokesperson for the National Rifle Association, blamed the Wednesday night mass shooting in California on the state's strict gun control laws.
"What happened was horrific," Loesch tweeted Thursday morning. "Evil is real. So are CA gun laws." Loesch then listed all of the supposed "evil" elements of California's state firearm regulations, none of which are extreme or excessively prohibitive.
"Universal BG checks - May issue - 10 round mag limit - Purchase limitations - 10 day waiting period - No reciprocity with other states - “Assault weapons” ban & registration - Ammo thru FFL - Registration if moved," she wrote
Loesch's tweet was a reply to New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof, who noted: "these kinds of incidents don't happen in normal countries where there is some reasonable regulation of firearms, starting with universal background checks."
Followers on Twitter blasted Loesch for her callous spin just hours after a gunman opened fire in a bar in Thousand Oaks, California, killing 13 people including armed sheriff's deputy Ron Helus.
When challenged over how to keep guns out of the hands of those who harbor ill-will, Loesch didn't have a solution.
Her callousness was not welcome.
As the NRA's public liaison, Loesch is one of the gun lobby's most powerful voices.
Loesch, having offered no evidence to support her claims that gun control causes mass shootings, was confronted with the inconvenient truth that states with stricter firearm rules have fewer gun-related deaths.
And that the one "good guy with a gun" was among those killed.
Would Loesch prefer guns in bars?
Perhaps Loesch should listen to the eyewitness accounts of the latest mass shooting to cripple the country.
The scene at Borderline Bar & Grill Wednesday night was described as "horrific" by first responders.
A 28-year-old gunman entered the bar, a local hotspot enjoying "College Country Night," and opened fire with a handgun. He was found dead inside the bar.
“It’s a horrific scene in there,” Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean told reporters. “There’s blood everywhere. The suspect is part of that.”
Dean said the violence “is part of the horrors that are happening in our country and everywhere, and I think it’s impossible to put any logic or any sense to the senseless.”
Helus "died a hero,” Dean said, “because he went in to save lives."
President Donald Trump shared his condolances for the victims on Twitter and praised local law enforcement for their swift response.
Witnesses and survivors described to what happened inside the bar as the shooting began.
The Washington Post chronicled some of the first statements from those who were there.
“It was sheer panic,” said Teylor Whittler, 19, who was inside. “Everyone ran and dropped as fast as they could.”
“And then all, of a sudden," she added, "a couple of guys started running to the back door and said, ‘Get up he’s coming.'”
Matt Wennerstrom, 20, said the shooter was a "tall figure" wearing "all dark clothing" who initially targeted employees working behind the bar.
“At that point," Wennerstrom recalled, "I grabbed as many people around me as I could and pulled them down underneath the pool table that we were closest to until he ran out of bullets for that magazine and had to reload." He said he was able to push "30 or 35 people" out of the bar through a window shattered by a bar stool.
Others recounted how they were able to escape
“He fired the first shot,” a stepfather who was at the bar with his stepson said. “And I knew it was real. My son thought it was a joke, so I pulled him down and got some cover. I looked up, and he was moving to the right. He shot the front doorman, who was just a young man. Then he shot the cashier, just a young girl.”
Rachel Hammons, 24, said she made a break for the exit as soon as she had the chance.
“All of a sudden we heard four shots, you know, ‘bang, bang, bang, bang.’ Everyone got down on the floor. Everyone ducked and covered each other,” she said. “As everyone crouched down on the floor, I figured that my only chance would be to run out to the nearest exit. I saw the nearest exit, and I ran out as fast as I could.”
“You’ve got to hurry, you’ve got to get in there,” she urged police, having watched them swarm the premesis from her car.
So far in 2018, there have been 308 mass shootings in the United States. We're on day 312.
