After a 19-year-old walked into his former Florida high school Thursday and killed 17 people with an AR-15, a person identifying herself as a King County resident named Ginny Baldwin wrote to the chair of the King County GOP.
"I am a parent in King County," Baldwin wrote, "and I am writing to you, the GOP Chair, to ask that you and your organization please stop allowing the NRA to influence the lack of gun control locally and nationally."
Baldwin wrote that she believes people should be allowed to own guns but that assault rifle sales should not be allowed. In the last lines of the email, Baldwin wrote: "The American people overwhelmingly support tighter gun control regulations. Don't be complicit in the deaths of innocent children by doing nothing."
In response, she received a three-line email from King County GOP Chairman Lori Sotelo.
Sotelo quoted Baldwin's final "don't be complicit" line and then wrote: "WOW! Just. WOW! Please, do not ever contact me again."
Liberals have been circulating a screenshot of the email around Facebook and Twitter, expressing outrage. The Stranger tried to reach Baldwin directly, but we haven't yet heard back. Sotelo, though, took to her own Facebook page to acknowledge she sent the email and stands by it.
"Well...it appears the AntiTrump Leftist Haters have their feelings hurt because their emails to me yesterday about Republican complicity in the murder of children (referencing the FL massacre) were not well received," Sotelo's post reads.
"The Haters who flashmobbed my inbox and social media don’t want solutions," Sotelo wrote later, "they only want to create chaos and confusion in hopes of getting their way. They have been harassing elected officials all over the country for a year now. Republicans need to send a message loud and clear. Stop! Or as I said in my replies to the malcontent mobsters...'don’t ever contact me again!'"
According to the Washington Post, 150,000 students attending 170 schools have experienced a shooting on campus since the 1999 Columbine shooting. Wednesday's shooting in Florida was the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook. No other country on earth has as many guns or mass shootings as the United States.
Sotelo did not respond to requests for comment from The Stranger. She told the Seattle Times, "In my opinion, it is not newsworthy."
