Lawmaker apologizes for calling shooting survivor 'dummy'
A Republican Rhode Island lawmaker was forced to apologize after getting into a Twitter spat with outspoken Parkland shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez and calling her a 'dummy.'
But in making his amends to the high school student, state Rep. Mike Chippendale said he won't apologize for 'zealously defending' the Second Amendment.
Gonzalez has emerged as a prominent gun control activist after surviving a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14 that left 17 people dead.
Sorry, not sorry: Rep. Mike Chippendale (left) said he was sorry for calling Emma Gonzalez a 'dummy,' but said he would not apologize for 'zealously defending' the Second Amendment
Chippendale lashed out at the Parkland survivor after she pointed to the fact that the man who helped stop the Waffle House attack in Nashville Sunday was unarmed
On Monday, she sent out a series of tweets concerning the shooting at a Waffle House in Nashville the day before, which killed four people and injured four others.
'He was white and he used an AR-15,' Gonzalez said of the suspected shooter, 29-year-old Travis Reinking. 'The @NRA is about to say this man had mental health issues, so that the rest of us will get scared of anyone with poor mental health and buy a gun in preemptive defense so that gun sales increase.'
She went on: 'Shootings don’t just happen in schools, they happen everywhere in America, and now one has happened in Waffle House. You can donate all the shooting shelters to schools that you want, but at the end of the day, we can’t build our world out of Kevlar - someone is making Mad Money off that.
Four people were killed and four others were injured when a man armed with an AR-15 stormed into this Waffle House and opened fire
Suspect Travis Reinking was captured after a 24-hour manhunt (left). Reinking appeared in court to face murder charges on Monday (right)
Hero: James Shaw Jr (pictured during a press conference) was unarmed when he wrested the AR-15 from the gunman's hands, putting an end to the bloodshed
'The local police say a man at the scene wrestled his gun away - looks like you don’t need to arm a teacher (or a resource officer) to stop a shooting. There goes the sales pitch for @SmithWessonCorp.'
Chippendale responded on Monday to Gonzalez's comment pertaining to the heroic actions of James Shaw Jr, who was unarmed when he wrested the AR-15 from the gunman's hands, putting an end to the carnage.
Reinking escaped on foot from the restaurant and was captured naked in the woods 24 hours later.
Chippendale said in his reply to Gonzalez that the ensuing manhunt might have been avoided if Shaw had a gun, and 'the entire region wouldn't be on lockdown ... dummy.' He later deleted the tweet, but not before it was retweeted and disseminated by others.
Chippendale is a town chairman for Republican Allan Fung's gubernatorial campaign. A campaign spokesman called the tweet disappointing and said Chippendale was asked to apologize.
'Yesterday it was inappropriate for me to call someone a dummy on Twitter, and I’m sorry that I did — but I will not apologize for zealously defending the 2nd Amendment,' Chippendale stated on Tuesday.
Independent gubernatorial candidate Joe Trillo accused Fung of 'throwing his people under the bus.'
Trillo, a former Republican lawmaker, said it's an example of 'political correctness rearing its ugly head.'
Chippendale said Fung addressed his mistake appropriately.
The Democratic Governors Association said Fung should remove Chippendale from his campaign to show he doesn’t condone insulting a mass shooting survivor.