NRA’s Wayne LaPierre Like ‘Clown at Circus,’ Connecticut Governor Says

Fresh off the heels of signing some of the nation’s toughest gun regulations into law last week, Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (pictured right) ripped National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, comparing him to a clown you’d see at a circus.

“Wayne reminds me of the clowns at the circus. They get the most attention. That’s what he’s paid to do,” the Democratic governor said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “The reality is that the gun that was used to kill 26 people on December 14 was legally purchased in the state of Connecticut, even though we had an assault weapons ban. But there were loopholes in it that you could drive a truck through.”

He added: “This guy is so out of whack, it’s unbelievable. Ninety-two percent of the American people want universal background checks. I can’t get on a plane as the governor of the state of Connecticut without somebody running a background check on me. Why should you be able to buy a gun or buy, you know, armor-piercing munitions? It doesn’t make any sense. He doesn’t make any sense. Thus, my reference to the circus.”

Malloy was responding to criticism leveled by the pro-gun lobby against his state’s new gun control laws.

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.