NRA officially branded a ‘domestic terrorist organisation’ in San Francisco

'All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons'

Officials in San Francisco have voted to officially label the National Rifle Association (NRA) a “domestic terrorist organisation” following a mass shooting at an outdoor festival earlier this summer in Gilroy, California.

The formal classification — a rare label for an active US lobbying group — came as members of the city's ruling Board of Supervisors passed a resolution that suggested the NRA’s influence was behind an increase in deadly mass shootings nationwide.

“All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association’s influence,” the resolution read.

It also said the US was currently “plagued by an epidemic of gun violence” and that the gun lobbying group had used “its considerable wealth and organisation strength to promote gun ownership and incite gun owners to acts of violence”.

While the resolution does not legally restrict local businesses from working with the NRA, it encourages the city and county of San Francisco to “take every reasonable step to limit those entities who do business with the City and County of San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organisation.”

The NRA has served as a central focus for those demonstrating against gun violence in the wake of several mass shootings in recent months, with activists and 2020 Democratic candidates calling for bans on assault weapons and some even demanding a government buy back programme for AR-15s and AK-47s, two guns used in several of the latest shootings.

Donald Trump has previously suggested the same “domestic terror” classification placed upon the NRA by San Francisco officials should instead be used to describe the left-wing autonomous antifascist movement, otherwise known as Antifa.

The NRA decried the resolution as a “ludicrous stunt” while urging the California city to focus on issues besides gun control reform.

“This ludicrous stunt by the Board of Supervisors is an effort to distract from the real problems facing San Francisco, such as rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime, to name a few," a statement from the gun rights group read.

“The NRA will continue working to protect the constitutional rights of all freedom-loving Americans.”

Catherine Stefani, a San Francisco District 2 Supervisor who wrote the resolution, told local news channel KTVU: “The NRA has it coming to them, and I will do everything that I possibly can to call them out on what they are, which is a domestic terrorist organisation.

“We had Dayton, Ohio. We had El Paso, Texas. Now we've had Odessa, Texas, and people are dying every day in this country.”

She added: “Doing nothing is not an option, and that it what the NRA continues to do.”