Frederic Dicker, a radio show host, top New York Post columnist and fierce gun advocate, called the Newtown school shooting 'a little convenient massacre' on Monday.
Dicker, who made the comment Monday on his WGDJ talk show, said that Gov. Cuomo was able to push anti-gun legislation after 'he had a little convenient massacre that went on in Newtown, Conn.' Families of those killed in the school shooting called for an apology from the gun enthusiast. 'There’s nothing ‘convenient’ about 26 lives being gunned down in an elementary school,' one relative said.
A top New York Post columnist Monday called the Newtown school shooting “a little convenient massacre” — sparking outrage among the loved ones of those who died in the bloodbath.
The families joined gun-control advocates in demanding an apology from Post state editor and conservative political columnist Fredric Dicker, who made the comment Monday on his WGDJ Talk AM 1300 radio broadcast from Albany.
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'There’s nothing 'convenient' about 26 lives being gunned down in an elementary school,' says James Wiltsie, whose cousin, Victoria Soto, 27, was among the victims killed in the Sandy Hook shooting.
“It’s basically putting salt in the wound,” said James Wiltsie, whose cousin, Victoria Soto, 27, was among the six adults and 20 children murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut on Dec. 14, 2012.
Dicker later said his statement was misconstrued, and that he purposely used the word 'massacre' to refer to a 'horrendous, large-scale killing.'
“For a professional journalist, I think it was irresponsible and unprofessional for him to say that,” Wiltsie said. “There’s nothing ‘convenient’ about 26 lives being gunned down in an elementary school.”
JESSICA HILL/AP
'For a professional journalist, I think it was irresponsible and unprofessional for him to say that,' Wiltsie says. Here, woman waits to hear about her sister, a teacher, following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, 2012.
The remark came while Dicker was discussing Gov. Cuomo’s State of the State address with political satirist Randy Credico. The subject turned to the governor’s SAFE Act gun-control legislation, passed in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting.
“That was his anti-gun legislation, which he had promised not to do, but then he had a little convenient massacre that went on in Newtown, Conn., and all of a sudden there was an opportunity for him,” Dicker said.
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Six adults and 20 children were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Here, a display of wooden crosses and a Jewish Star of David for the victims of the Sandy Hook massacre.
Dicker is a fierce advocate of gun rights and a gun owner who keeps a large round of ammunition in his Albany office — along with a photo of himself in Nicaragua holding an assault rifle.
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Dicker says his statement was a 'a sarcastic reference to the governor latching on to an horrendous out-of-state mass killing to advance a political agenda,' but relatives of the victims are demanding an apology. Here, families grieve outside of the school after the shooting.
He said later his statement was being misconstrued.
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Young children wait outside Sandy Hook Elementary following the shooting. 'For Fred Dicker to call such an event ‘convenient’ is shocking,' says Leah Gunn Barrett, executive director of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.
“This group clearly doesn’t understand, or doesn’t want to understand, my point, which is a sarcastic reference to the governor latching on to an horrendous out-of-state mass killing to advance a political agenda that had nothing to do with the problem of gun-related crime in New York,” Dicker said.
“I wasn’t minimizing the horror at all, just the opposite,” Dicker said. “I used the word ‘massacre’ intentionally because it refers, by definition, to a horrendous large-scale killing, which of course the Newtown horror was.”
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Here, mourners gather outside of the elementary school for a vigil. Barrett says New Yorkers Against Gun Violence will be calling on advertisers to boycott media outlets giving Dicker 'a platform for such hateful comments.'
But New Yorkers Against Gun Violence immediately demanded that Dicker apologize to the families of those killed.
“For Fred Dicker to call such an event ‘convenient’ is shocking,” said the group’s executive director, Leah Gunn Barrett.
Barrett called for a boycott of WGDJ and the Post until Dicker gives an on-air apology.
“Until he takes that step, we are calling on advertisers to stand in solidarity with the families of Newtown by boycotting media outlets that give Mr. Dicker a platform for such hateful comments,” she said.
