캐럴린 맬러니 의원은 3일(현지시간) 누군가가 전날 의원실에 전 화를 걸어와 살해 위협을 했다고 현지 경찰에 신고했다.
맬러니 의원은 “내가 (총기 규제와 관련해) 입안한 법안에 대한 보도가 나가고 나서 뉴욕 소재 의원 사무실로 여러 차례 살해 협박 전화가 걸려왔다”면서 “젊은 인턴들이 전화를 받아 매우 충격을 받은 상태”라고 공개했다.
맬러니 의원은 본인 역시 “죽이겠다”는 세 차례의 협박 전화를 받고 나서 불안 해져 예정됐던 시상식 만찬에도 불참해야 했다고 현지 신문을 통해 밝혔다.
맬러니 의원은 강력한 총기 규제 법안을 추진 중인 버락 오바마 미국 대통령의 든든한 지원군 가운데 한 명으로 그동안 총기를 소지하려면 책임보험에 가입해야 한다는 법안을 추진해왔다.
그러나 여러 명의 공화당 의원과 미국 총기협회(NRA) 등은 해당 법안에 강력하 게 반대해왔다.
맬러니 의원은 “매년 미국인 10만 명이 총기사고로 다친다”며 “나를 겨냥한 위 협을 심각하게 받아들이지만 그런 위협으론 나를 멈추지는 못할 것”이라고 강조했다 .
<관련 영문 기사>
U.S. lawmaker gets death threats over gun control bill
A U.S. congresswoman said Wednesday she received death threats this week for introducing a bill that would tighten the nation‘s gun laws.
Representative Carolyn Maloney said she informed police that someone phoned her New York congressional office on Tuesday and threatened her over her pending legislation, which comes three months after a school massacre in neighboring Connecticut.
“Yesterday, several death threats were phoned into my New York office in response to news reports about a bill I authored requiring gun owners to have insurance,” Maloney said in a statement.
“The calls were fielded by young interns, who were understandably shaken by this experience.”
The 11-term Democrat’s New York district office received three menacing phone calls which left her so disturbed that she missed a planned awards dinner Tuesday night, according to the New York Daily News.
“They said they were going to kill me,” she told the paper.
Maloney is a strong backer of President Barack Obama‘s push for legislation to reduce gun violence, efforts which have been vehemently opposed by several Republican lawmakers and gun advocates like the National Rifle Association.
She said her bill would require gun owners to carry liability insurance, “just like car owners, to give innocent victims of gun violence some recourse if they are injured.
”100,000 Americans are injured by guns every year,“ she added. ”Carrying insurance is the responsible thing to do.“
Maloney said she was particularly disturbed by the threats, given the December shooting in Newtown, Connecticut that left 20 small children and six staffers dead, and an earlier theater massacre in Aurora, Colorado, as well as the attack on then-congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a gunshot to the head in her Arizona district in 2011.
”I take the threat of more gun violence very seriously,“ Maloney said, ”but it is not something that I will allow to stop me from doing my work.“ (AFP)
