Florida victim’s mother challenges NRA spox: Why isn’t my son’s right to life as protected as gun rights?

The mother of a teacher killed in the Florida high school shooting confronted National Rife Association (NRA) spokeswoman Dana Loesch, asking why the group protects Second Amendment rights more than her son’s “right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Linda Biegel Schulman, whose son Scott Biegel was a geography teacher at the Florida high school, posed the question during a CNN town hall in the wake of the shooting.

“The Declaration of Independence was written in 1776, which gave my son the unalienable right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So I ask you, why are my son’s unalienable rights not protected as fiercely as the right to bear arms?” she asked.

{mosads}

“I’m sorry for what you experienced. And I’m not — as I said, I’m a parent, but I have not been in this position. And as a parent, it terrifies me, to be honest with you,” Loesch said.

“It should,” Biegel Schulman interjected.

Loesch said that the issue isn’t about deciding whether people care about others’ lives or care about firearms.

“This issue is about making sure that we’re protecting innocent lives. No innocent lives should be lost. None of them should,” she said.

“When the Second Amendment was ratified, they were talking about muskets. We’re not talking about muskets,” Biegel Schulman said. “We’re talking about assault rifles. We’re talking about weapons of mass destruction that kill people.”

Loesch pushed back, noting “fully automatic weapons that were available” at that time.

“It doesn’t make it right,” Biegel Schulman interrupted.

“What I’m saying is, there were more than just muskets available,” the NRA spokeswoman continued.

“I don’t think that you should have ever had to have gone through that. If I could change time and change circumstances, I would have done everything in my power to prevent that,” Loesch said.

Survivors of the Parkland, Fla., shooting have been demanding that lawmakers take action on gun laws in the week since the shooting.

Republican state lawmakers in Florida voted Tuesday to not take action on a bill to ban assault weapons.