NRA robocalls anger Newtown residents

NEWTOWN, Conn., March 25 (UPI) -- Automated phone calls from the National Rifle Association, calling for push back against gun control proposals, are angering Newtown, Conn., residents.

Several people in the town where a young gunman killed his mother before slaughtering 20 children and six adults at a school and then taking his own life said they have received the tape-recorded messages, urging them to contact legislators and oppose gun control legislation.

The calls in the wake of the December mass shooting are being called insensitive, WVIT-TV, West Hartford, reported Monday.

"I was just, kind of, more shocked. That type of call would come to Newtown, three months after the most horrendous tragedies to call [on] the town of Newtown, didn't seem like the right thing to do," Newtown resident Tom Maurath said.

Most upsetting, Maurath noted, was the automated calls were made at dinnertime, a time when the whole family is home, including children who might not know the details of the events at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Fellow Sandy Hook resident Dan O'Donnell also said he was perplexed why the NRA would be targeting him with multiple calls when he's not a member.

"It's ridiculous and insensitive," O'Donnell said.

"I can't believe an organization would be so focused on the rights of gun owners, with no consideration for the losses the town suffered."