SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- San Francisco Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer Wednesday defended a city resolution that called the National Rifle Association (NRA) a "domestic terrorist organization," holding it responsible for the killing of innocents in the United States.
"When you think about all the lives in the shootings that have happened in the United States, when you think about young children six years old, infants being shot, is this not an act of terrorism?" Fewer told Xinhua when responding to why the city's Board of Supervisors described the NRA as a "terrorist" group.
San Fransisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a resolution Tuesday declaring the NRA a "domestic terrorist organization" in the wake of mass shootings one after another in the past months across the country that killed tens of people.
The resolution was introduced by Supervisor Catherine Stefani following the shooting epidemic, particularly the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting in late July in Northern California, in which three innocent people were killed, including a six-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl.
"This is an act of terrorism. I think it's about time (to say no to gun violence)," Fewer said.
The NRA "musters its considerable wealth and organizational strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence," according to the resolution.
The resolution also urged other cities, states and the federal government to take the same action against the NRA, the country's powerful gun lobbyist group.
Fewer said the Supervisors voted on the resolution in light of the "ridiculous gun violence" that has recently gripped the country with children and adults being shot and killed.
"It is time to say something and to stand up to what the NRA is doing, and also the fact that they don't bring a solution to the table on this and that actually they encourage this type of terrorism in our own country," Fewer added.
She said when people no longer feel safe when they go to a movie theater, college, pre-school, concert or church, there is a big problem for the country.
"This is crazy. This is something we can control. We need legislation. All of those dead bodies are on their (NRA's) backs and their consciences. They can do something, but they insist on fighting against legislation that would ban assault weapons," Fewer said.
In response to San Francisco's resolution, the NRA fired back by calling the voting "a stunt" aimed at distracting voters from some real issues facing the city, such as "rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime."
A total of 403 people have died in mass shootings in the United States in 2019 by the end of August, with 93 deaths in August alone, according to statistics of the Mass Shooting Tracker website, a crowd-sourced database of U.S. mass shootings.
