Post Orlando Shooting, Gay PETA VP Targets NRA at Cap Hill Lobbying Office

As Congress remains gridlocked over gun control after the Orlando tragedy, gay PETA Vice President Dan Mathews led a surprise blitz on the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) lobbying office a block from the Capitol on Friday. Here is an article from DCist about the protest. Photos from the protest can be viewed here.

Bearing a rainbow wreath and carrying the mounted heads of hunted animals, Mathews—accompanied by PETA members wearing mourning black—told passersby and reporters:

Many of us in the gay community empathize with animals, because we’ve also lived our lives being stalked and abused by violent strangers. As we mourn the victims in Orlando, we recognize that the culture of gun violence often starts with hunting helpless animals. There’s nothing responsible about fostering in kids a sadistic urge to kill. Younger generations are moving away from hunting, and PETA is here to keep the momentum by being a voice against all violence.

Signs at the demonstration proclaimed, “NRA: National Registry of Assassins.” In addition to assault rifles, PETA seeks to ban all weapons used to hunt human beings and animals. The dead menagerie piled up outside the NRA was donated by a taxidermy collector who was so moved by the Orlando massacre that he gave his collection to PETA, to help illustrate the connection between gun violence toward animals and that toward humans.