Ocasio-Cortez hits NRA after New Zealand shooting: ‘What good are your thoughts and prayers?’
The Hill
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Friday tore into the National Rifle Association (NRA) after at least one gunman opened fire at two New Zealand mosques, leaving at least 49 people dead.
The New York lawmaker condemned the fatal attack on Twitter, focusing her message on the American gun group.
“At 1st I thought of saying, ‘Imagine being told your house of faith isn’t safe anymore.’ But I couldn’t say ‘imagine,’” the lawmaker wrote, citing the deadly shootings at a Charleston, S.C., church, a Pittsburgh synagogue and a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church.
“What good are your thoughts & prayers when they don’t even keep the pews safe?” She added.
Ocasio-Cortez noted that “thoughts and prayers” is a reference to the NRA phrase she says is “used to deflect conversation away from policy change during tragedies.”
(“Thoughts and prayers” is reference to the NRA’s phrase used to deflect conversation away from policy change during tragedies. Not directed to PM Ardern, who I greatly admire.)
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 15, 2019
The progressive congresswoman called on communities to “come together, fight for each other & stand up for neighbors.”
“Isolation, dehumanizing stereotypes, hysterical conspiracy theories & hatred ultimately lead to the anarchy of violence,” she wrote on Twitter. “We cannot stand for it.”
Ocasio-Cortez added that she greatly admires New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Ardern called the shootings “one of New Zealand’s darkest days,” according to The Associated Press, adding that it was “an extraordinary and unprecedented act of violence.”
“It is clear that this can now only be described as a terrorist attack,” Ardern said.
The prime minister raised the national security threat to the second-highest level following the shootings.
Authorities have charged one person and detained three others in the attack. They also defused explosive devices after the gunman published live footage of the shooting and published a “manifesto” calling immigrants “invaders.”