Last week, a post on the Facebook page of the Republican candidate in the race for Pueblo County, Colorado, commissioner made national headlines. Rarely do local elections make national news for good reasons, and this case is no different.
Tom Ready, the candidate in question, had apparently posted an article to his Facebook page which said that the Sandy Hook shootings in 2012 were a hoax to increase support for gun control laws.
After incumbent commissioner Sal Pace brought up the post during a debate, Ready said he only put that link up for discussion, the Pueblo Chieftain reported. “I don’t think (the Sandy Hook Shootings have) been proven. And what’s wrong with the open discussion?” asked Ready.
Now Ready is saying he was misunderstood because didn’t do a very good job explaining why the link was there in the first place.
Ready said Saturday that he “pushed a button” and linked to the article, according to the Denver Post. He also said that during the debate he tried to make the point, albeit not well, that “the country doesn’t know everything about the school shooting just as it doesn’t know everything about the Kennedy assassination,” The Post reported.
“We haven’t got all the questions answered,” said Ready, who was surprised by the uproar. “Where’s the freedom of speech? I didn’t know we were a communist community.”
He also said he was sorry that he hurt anyone impacted by the shootings, which killed 20 children and 6 adults.
“People who know me know that I’ve never even talked about this,” Ready told The Post, adding that he has grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Ready’s remarks on Sandy Hook were ridiculous, as was his attempt at an apology for them. Suffice to say, Comm. Pace can probably put his campaign on cruise control until the election.
