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Newsweek Writer: Only AR-15 Owners I Know Are Mass Murderers

Getty Images / AFP PHOTO / Karen BLEIER

Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
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Newsweek writer Nina Burleigh claimed Saturday that almost every person she has heard of who owns an AR-15 rifle “has been a mass murderer.”

And “based on Twitter sample the rest of them are scarily paranoid,” Burleigh tweeted.

“Get on the right side of history,” she urged, tagging NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch and right-wing personality Joe Biggs, who are both outspoken supporters of the Second Amendment.

AR-15 rifles were used in the Newtown school shooting, the Orlando nightclub shooting, the Aurora, Colorado shooting at a movie theater, and other mass shootings. An estimated 8 million to 15 million people own AR-15s, making it the most popular rifle in America.

Burleigh’s tweet prompted scores of responses from people pointing out the popularity of the AR-15 and suggesting the Newsweek writer lives in a “bubble.”

“Your reminder that the Left has a culture of hating gun owners, not just opposing gun ownership,” radio host Buck Sexton tweeted in response. “It’s not really about the guns anymore, it’s about ridiculing and antagonizing those who choose to own them.”

National Review writer Jonah Goldberg said, “Nina, this shows you’re in a massive, thick, bubble.”

Burleigh accused her critics of being “pro @NRA Russia bots” and insisted she wasn’t going to read any of the angry replies to her tweet.

“I don’t read [the replies] and I assume the majority are pro @NRA Russian bots,” Burleigh said. “Thanks for stepping up comrades!”

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