A small memorial for Srinivas Kuchibhotla is displayed outside Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kan., on Feb. 24, 2017. (Photo: Orlin Wagner/AP)
An LGBT gun violence prevention group says the National Rifle Association and Donald Trump deserve the blame for an alleged hate-fueled triple shooting at a Kansas bar last week.
Gays Against Guns described the bar-room attack on two Indian men and a bystander who tried to intervene as the result of the NRA’s “guns everywhere” agenda and Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric.
Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a 32-year-old Indian national who worked for Garmin, died after a man opened fire inside Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe, Kansas, last week. Kuchibhotla’s friend and coworker, 32-year-old Alok Madasani, and 24-year-old Ian Grillot, another bar patron, were wounded in the attack.
Authorities identified the gunman as 51-year-old Adam W. Purinton, who fled the scene on foot and was later apprehended at an Applebees in Missouri, The Kansas City Star reports. He is charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder and is awaiting extradition back to Johnson County, Kansas.
Several witnesses told investigators they heard Purinton yell “get out of my country” before firing, the newspaper reports.
“Kuchibhotla and Madasani’s tragic deaths are the direct result of the NRA’s state-by-state push for looser gun laws and Trump’s xenophobia,” Gays Against Guns said in a blog post Friday. “Trump has yet to make a formal statement about the incident or even extend a gesture to the Prime Minister of India. WE CAN stop the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017.”
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback enacted Senate Bill 45 in April 2015, legalizing concealed carry in the state without a license. Gays Against Guns says legislation like this — and Donald Trump’s commitment to nationwide concealed carry reciprocity — will further promote gun violence.
Similar sentiments were echoed recently in a Friday Washington Post article.
The Trump administration told Reuters it was “absurd” to link the tragedy to the president’s rhetoric.
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