Years after surviving a mass shooting himself, “Eagles of Death Metal” frontman James Hughes expressed disgust at the protesting survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, and he’s catching some serious heat for speaking his mind.
On Saturday, several hundred thousand people joined the March For Our Lives, which was organized by the students of the Parkland, Florida high school where 17 people were killed last month. The main rallying cry of the march was a call for increased gun-control legislation. Dozens of celebrities openly supported the cause, but it didn’t sit well with Hughes, who was onstage during the massacre at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris in 2015 that left 90 people dead.
Hughes blasted the protest in a series of Instagram posts that are no longer public in which he said the protesting students were insulting the memory of those who were killed.
Eagles of Death Metal’s Jesse Hughes calls Florida massacre survivors ‘disgusting vile abusers of the dead’ https://t.co/igOQr7Daj9 pic.twitter.com/Hm81RSQ1XM
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) March 26, 2018
“As the survivor of a mass shooting I can tell you from first-hand experience that all of you protesting and taking days off from school insult the memory of those who were killed and abuse and insult me and every other lover of liberty by your every action,” Hughes said.
The 45-year-old musician also singled out student turned gun-control activist Emma Gonzalez, who addressed the crowd at the March For Our Lives. Hughes called Gonzalez a liar in one of his Instagram posts and shared a fake image of her ripping up a copy of the United States Constitution in another, referring to her as a “survivor of nothing” and “the awful face of treason.”
The right-wing rocker and vocal Trump supporter has been outspoken about his opinions about terrorism and guns since surviving the 2015 attack in Paris. Still there are plenty of people taking issue with his stances who fired back at him on social media.
Jesse Hughes—frontman for Eagles of Death Metal—has published a picture of Emma Gonzalez (@Emma4Change) calling her “the Awful Face of Treason.”
No, Jesse, *this* is the awful face of treason, and it will be remembered and scorned by Americans for many, many generations to come: pic.twitter.com/prb2pMwN0H
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 26, 2018
Hey, @jesseEODM I think going out of your way to attack a fellow victim of gun violence, let alone a child, is a pretty pussy ass move. Might wanna check yourself cause your ignorance is showing.
Amendments are meant to be amended. pic.twitter.com/qjlOrM4mnD— Ethan Embry (@EmbryEthan) March 26, 2018
Jesse Hughes, shut the fuck up, for the love of God https://t.co/gkxh9ybP7p pic.twitter.com/JwW0GcsoTf
— NME (@NME) March 26, 2018