Mayors Group Apologizes for Reading Terrorist Name at Rally

CONCORD, NH – An anti-gun violence group is coming under fire for reading the name of a terrorist in its list of gun violence victims.

The group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, held a No More Names rally outside the Statehouse on June 18, reading the names of those who lost their lives to gun violence. One of the names listed, according to a New Hampshire Union Leader report, was Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon terrorist bomber who was killed by police in Watertown, Mass., on April 19.

At the rally, pro-2nd Amendment activists were chanting and heckling the anti-gun violence rally attendees and when one read the name of Tsarnaev, at least one pro-gun counter-protester yelled, “He’s a terrorist.”

The organization, supported by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, confirmed to Patch on June 19, that Tsarnaev’s name was on the list and pointed to a project by Slate.com that was compiling and tracking gun deaths since the Sandy Hook shootings in Newtown, CT.

Alex Katz, the deputy communications director for Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Bloomberg’s office, apologized for the inclusion.

“Mayors Against Illegal Guns relied on the public list compiled by Slate.com entitled 'How Many People Have Been Killed by Guns Since Newtown?', and his name was on the list,” Katz said in an email. “He was absolutely not a victim, his name should have been deleted before the list was provided to a family member for reading and his name should never have been read. It was a mistake, it should not have happened and we sincerely apologize."

A check of the file that Slate has posted on its website confirmed that Tsarnaev’s name was on the list.

Katz said that the mistake didn’t negate the issue that “Americans who have lost family members to guns and volunteers are reading the names of victims since the Newtown tragedy to show the very real and personal cost of gun violence,” adding that the list was growing every day.

The reading of Tsarnaev’s name sparked outrage among conservatives, with a number of bloggers writing that this was their point – that just saying “died from a gun” doesn’t reflect the real problem.

NH GOP Chairwoman Jennifer Horn said in a statement that inclusion of Tsarnaev was “outrageous” since he “was a murderous terrorist and a cold-blooded killer.” She called Bloomberg’s group “out of touch with New Hampshire values that it believes this monster should be labeled as some kind of victim.”