Parkland survivor David Hogg slams NRA for peddling conspiracy theories about school shootings

'The NRA literally drives conspiracies about school shootings to fear monger gun owners to buy more guns'

Gun control reform activists and survivors of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida have reacted with outrage after it was reported an official with the National Rifle Association pushed false theories about the massacre to a popular online conspiracy theorist.

Mark Richardson, who works as an instructor programme coordinator for the gun rights group, reportedly exchanged emails after the shooting with conspiracy theorist Wolfgang Halbig, who is known for providing outlandish theories about the child victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre.

“Concerning what happened in Florida yesterday, I have been asking the question and no one else seems to be asking it,” the NRA official wrote to Mr Halbig in the 15 February email from last year, a day after the Parkland shooting. “How is it that Cruz was able gain access to a secured facility while in possession of a rifle, multiple magazines, smoke grenades and a gas mask?“

In a follow up email, Mr Richardson continued to question how the gunman managed to storm the Parkland high school even though he was no longer a student at the campus.

“No longer a student, why was he allowed in the building at all?” Mr Richardson wrote.

“Where was all the equipment, in his back pocket?“ he added.

In a response to the newly-reported email exchange, first published in HuffPost earlier this week, the NRA said “This personnel related matter is under review.”

David Hogg, an outspoken survivor of the Parkland massacre who has since become a prominent voice for gun control, railed against the NRA on social media after the latest reports.

“The NRA literally drives conspiracies about school shootings to fear monger gun owners to buy more guns,” he wrote on Wednesday night.

“I don’t not understand how any human being could support an organisation aimed at selling guns at the cost of dead children,” he added.