As a gun violence debate rages following several recent mass shootings, San Francisco’s board of supervisors has labelled the National Rifle Association a domestic terrorist organization.

In a resolution passed on Tuesday, the county government body said the gun rights group “spreads propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence.”

The board also urged other cities to follow its lead in officially condemning the NRA as a domestic terrorist group.

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“All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association’s influence,” the resolution, written by District 2 Supervisor Catherine Stefani, read.





“The NRA has it coming to them, and I will do everything that I possibly can to call them out on what they are, which is a domestic terrorist organization,” Stefani told Fox affiliate KTVU.

She also cited a spate of recent shootings – including a tragedy over the weekend in Odessa, Texas – to claim that “people are dying every day in this country.”

“Doing nothing is not an option, and that it what the NRA continues to do,” Stefani added.

The NRA responded in a statement:

“This ludicrous stunt by the Board of Supervisors is an effort to distract from the real problems facing San Francisco, such as rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime, to name a few. The NRA will continue working to protect the constitutional rights of all freedom-loving Americans.”

The NRA as gun control activists’ biggest bogeyman

The occurrence of several mass shootings in the past few months have intensified an already heated national gun debate.

Gun control activists have renewed calls for increased restrictions on the purchase of firearms, citing data from organizations such as the Gun Violence Archive to claim that America is in the midst of a gun violence epidemic.

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The NRA in particular has faced intense scrutiny from proponents of gun control.

At a Fox News town hall in Iowa earlier this year, 2020 Democratic presidential hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand accused the NRA of spreading “fear and division and hate.”

“The most outrageous thing that’s happened to our democracy is how much fear and division and hate has been spread,” she said. “I think the NRA is the worst organization in this country for doing exactly that. They care more about their profits than the American people.”