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A Michigan Republican official who implied another Kent State shooting might be warranted has resigned. Kent State students suggested he visit the May 4 memorial on campus.

(Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - A Republican party official in northern Michigan who implied a repeat of the May 4, 1970, shootings at Kent State University might be warranted has resigned.

Marquette County Republican Party secretary Dan Adamini came under fire after he posted several comments on Twitter and Facebook a week ago.

According to media reports, Adamini wrote on Twitter: "Violent protesters who shut down free speech? Time for another Kent State perhaps. One bullet stops a lot of thuggery."

Adamini wrote in a separate Facebook post: "I'm thinking that another Kent State might be the only solution...They do it because they know there are no consequences yet."

The comments were in response to protests at the University of California Berkeley regarding a scheduled speech by Milo Yiannopoulos, the senior editor of the rightwing website Breitbart.

Four Kent State students were killed and nine wounded in 1970 after an Ohio National Guard unit opened fire on an anti-Vietnam War protest.

Adamini's posts attracted media and social media attention after they caught the attention of the Michigan Democratic Party.

"This is an abhorrent and painful use of our tragedy and has no place in healing the divide in America. We will respond," Kent State President Beverly Warren wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning.

Adamini, who removed the posts, apologized.

He told the Detroit News on Wednesday he has received hundreds of death threats over the uproar and he resigned hoping the move will satisfy those outraged by his statement.

"Whenever you're involved in an organization, you want to be an asset," he said. "At the moment I've become a distraction, and that's not helping anybody. I stepped aside so hopefully the people that are so angry will feel that they've accomplished what they set out to do, and maybe we can all get on with our lives."