Michael Moore is calling for the removal of any members of Congress who do not support a bill to ban all assault weapons, following the Sunday morning mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., that left 49 dead.
“Any member of Congress who hasn’t announced support for a bill to ban all assault weapons by Friday should be removed from Congress,” the Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker tweeted Tuesday evening.
Any member of Congress who hasn’t announced support for a bill to ban all assault weapons by Friday should be removed from Congress.
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) June 15, 2016
Democrats have in the past called for renewing a federal ban on assault weapons following mass shootings. The biggest unsuccessful push in recent years came following the shooting in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012, which left 20 school children dead. The latest salvo in Congress following the mass shooting in Orlando has been a group of lawmakers pressing for legislation to ban people who are on the terrorism watch list from purchasing guns and explosives. The White House also indicated this week that it would again urge Congress to reinstitute the assault weapons ban and reiterated that “common-sense” steps should be taken towards more gun control.
Omar Mateen opened fire at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Fla., early Sunday morning, using what some early reports said was an AR-15 assault rifle. Officials later confirmed the gun to be a Sig Sauer MCX semi-automatic rifle, similar but unrelated to the AR-15 assault rifle, which is the civilian model of the military M-16 rifle.
Moore called on people to stop referring to the gun used in Orlando, along with the gun used in the Newtown mass shooting, as an AR-15. Instead, he said the gun “is the M-16 weapon we used in Vietnam, modified 4 civilian use.”
Please stop calling the assault rifle used in Orlando&Newtown the”AR-15″. It is the M-16 weapon we used in Vietnam, modified 4 civilian use.
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) June 15, 2016
“Ammo used in AR-15/M-16 is banned by Geneva Convention. It enters the body, spins & explodes,” Moore added.
Ammo used in AR-15/M-16 is banned by Geneva Convention. It enters the body, spins & explodes. Show the crime scene photos & the NRA is over.
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) June 15, 2016
The gun control advocate also said that if photos of the crime scene were released, “the NRA is over.”
Any guy who had shop class in high school can change a semi-automatic gun 2 fully automatic in 5min. 4 million “AR-15″/M-16 guns in US homes
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) June 15, 2016
Following the mass shooting during the weekend, Moore tweeted that he had “nothing 2 say that hasn’t already been said,” while also reminding his followers that on the 163rd day of the year, there has been 173 mass shootings. Moore was apparently citing a MassShootingTracker.org, which classifies any incident in which four or more people are shot as a mass shooting.
Moore also retweeted a picture sent out by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in February showing a handgun with his name engraved on it, with a caption that simply read “America.”
— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) June 13, 2016
