Eagles of Death Metal shooting survivor: Parkland campaigners 'vile'
Eagles of Death Metal frontman Jesse Hughes, who survived the 2015 Paris attacks, has lashed out at survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school massacre.
In a series of posts on Instagram, the singer labelled students who led the March for Our Lives protest on Saturday as "vile abusers of the dead".
Hughes also accused one of the students of "treason" and mocked their gun control campaign.
It is not the first time he has created controversy since the Paris attacks.
In a series of four now-deleted posts on Sunday, Hughes said enacting gun control laws would "denigrate the memory and curse ourselves by exploiting the death of 16 of our fellow students for a few Facebook likes and some media attention".
He appeared confused about the death toll, as 17 people died in last month's attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student.
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"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 wrote.
Eagles of Death Metal were on stage in Paris on the night of 13 November 2015 when terrorists stormed the venue and killed 89 people.
In further posts, Hughes described Parkland survivor Emma Gonzalez as "the Awful Face Of Treason.....survivor of Nothing....Lover of Treason.....enjoy your little moment.....it's about to End……"
He shared a bogus image of her tearing apart the US constitution. The photo was doctored from a photoshoot the teenager did with Teen Vogue and widely shared among conservative critics of the gun-control campaigners.
Hughes also shared an image that said: "Donald Trump will be your president for 7 more years" and "there are only 2 genders".
He wrote: "I can tell you right now that the actions of these misguided youth and evil communists is making me feel terrified… with every broadcast of a willing and complicit press I feel the wall of security that the Constitution provides being taken down bit by bit….."
In a follow-up post he said he should not have mixed politics and music, though he did not apologise.
This is not the first time the rocker has drawn controversy.
Nearly two years after the Bataclan attack, Hughes suggested without any evidence that theatre security had been complicit.
The 45-year-old apologised, but was reportedly refused entry to the Bataclan when they reopened a year later.