Politics

MSNBC host blames NRA for law enforcement inability to find Boston bombing perp [VIDEO]

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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The National Rifle Association hasn’t received much in the way of favorable coverage from MSNBC recently. But on Wednesday’s “The Last Word,” host Lawrence O’Donnell took that unfavorable coverage to the next level by blaming the NRA for law enforcement’s inability to track down the perpetrator of Monday’s terrorist attack at the Boston Marathon.

O’Donnell made the statement during the opening of his show. He also blamed the gun-rights organization for the failure of legislation in the U.S. Senate that would enhance background checks for gun purchases.

“Today the gun lobbyists at the NRA got what they wanted on the floor of the United States Senate and tonight lobbyists from the NRA have made it harder for the FBI to find the murderer who planted the bombs here in Boston,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell referenced an article posted on MSNBC’s website by Frank Smyth, a long-standing critic of the NRA. The letter alleged that the NRA has lobbied to make tracking gunpowder purchases more difficult.

“There are new developments tonight in the bombing investigation here in Boston,” O’Donnell said. “But that investigation could be moving faster were it not for the successful lobbying efforts of the National Rifle Association. The NRA’s efforts to guarantee that American mass murderers are the best-equipped mass murders in the world is not limited to murderers who use assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. The NRA is also in the business of helping bombers get away with their crimes.

“Gunpowder could be traced by investigators to a buyer at the point of sale if gunpowder contained a taggant — an element that would enable tracing of the purchase of gunpowder,” he continued. “But thanks to the National Rifle Association, identification taggants are remembered by law only in plastic explosives. The NRA has successfully blocked any requirements for such taggants in gunpowder.”

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