Backlash erupted Wednesday when news emerged that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns, which has flooded New Hampshire airwaves with negative ads targeting Senator Kelly Ayotte, named Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev a “recent victim of gun violence.”
Yesterday the group held a rally in Concord, during which a list naming gun violence victims was read, Tsarneav’s included.
He was killed in a shootout with police in the days following the tragic Marathon bombings.
The Union Leader first noted Tsarneav’s mention in its report covering the protest, during which a confrontation between Bloomberg’s group and gun-rights supporters resulted in multiple arrests.
News of his “memorialization” rapidly, with organizations and onlookers nationwide calling on the Bloomberg group to renounce their dubbing a terrorist a victim.
“Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a murderous terrorist and a cold-blooded killer. It is outrageous that Mayor Bloomberg’s gun control group is so radical and out of touch with New Hampshire values that it believes this monster should be labeled as some kind of victim,” stated NH GOP chair Jennifer Horn in a press release. “President Obama and New Hampshire Democrats have joined forces with Mayor Bloomberg’s out-of-state group and openly participates in its vicious smear campaign against law abiding, Granite State gun owners. They need to immediately denounce these comments, end their relationship with this extremist group and make it clear that its radical views are not welcome in New Hampshire.”
The hours that followed have seen Mayors Against Illegal Guns formally apologize, claiming that the list read at the rally was obtained from Slate.com, per the Union Leader’s report of the renouncement.
Spokesman Alex Katz stated that Tsarnaev “was absolutely not a victim, his name should have been deleted before the list was provided to a family member for reading and his name should never have been read. It was a mistake, it should not have happened and we sincerely apologize.”
Despite the thousands of dollars the anti-gun group has put into its ad campaign against Ayotte, Dover Mayor Dean Threfethen remains the only New Hampshire member of the group.
