Pro-gun protesters turned a gun control rally, sponsored by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, into a shouting match on Tuesday outside the New Hampshire statehouse.
Protesters heckled John Cantin, who lost his daughter Melissa in 2009 after her estranged husband shot and killed her, as he spoke in favor of stricter gun control laws including background checks, The Boston Globe reported.
As Cantin spoke, a man identified by police as Daniel Musso stood next to him and repeatedly interrupted Cantin’s speech:
CANTIN: We know that when there is a gun in the home of a domestic abuser, a woman is 500 times more likely to be killed—MUSSO: What kind of gun are you talking here?CANTIN: And we know in states where there are background checks—MUSSO: A pellet gun? Or a machine gun? What kind of guns?CANTIN: All kinds of guns.MUSSO: Well, it doesn’t say that in your speech.
Musso continued to interrupt Cantin:
CANTIN: This is why I stood with fathers who lost their children in the Newtown shooting—MUSSO: What fathers??
“I blocked him out,” Cantin told Martin Bashir Friday afternoon. “I don’t even know if he knew why he was there for sure. I don’t think he realized what we were actually there for.”
Musso and other protesters also chanted, “Ayotte! Ayotte! Ayotte!” at Cantin as he spoke about delivering a petition to New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte’s office in support of stronger laws and limits to guns and explosives. Ayotte voted against background checks for gun sales in April. Ayotte’s office told BuzzFeed Friday that the senator hoped for civility in the future from both sides of the argument.
Cantin continued his speech as gun control supporters shouted at Musso to leave. A separate video posted by the local Patch.com shows police handcuffing Musso after walking away from the podium.
Watch the video of Cantin’s interrupted speech below posted by Mayors Against Illegal Guns, who organized Tuesday’s rally as part of their No More Names bus tour across the country:
Traci Lee