Not a time for blame

Hillary Clinton took heat Monday for issuing what critics called an "ignorant" and "irrelevant" statement going after the NRA and silencers in the hours after the Las Vegas mass shooting.

As details were still emerging about the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history - which killed at least 50 people - the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee took to Twitter to imagine how much deadlier the massacre might have been if silencers had been used.

"The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots. Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get," she tweeted, adding: "Our grief isn't enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again."

It was an apparent reference to the NRA’s push to ease federal rules for silencers.

But conservative critics quickly hit back, saying silencers probably would only moderately dampen the sound of gunfire in this kind of attack - especially from what was described as a high-powered weapon.

"Suppressors only reduce by a few decibels, still same decibel level as a jackhammer," tweeted Dana Loesch, a talk radio host and NRA spokeswoman.

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, editor in chief of The Daily Wire, blasted Clinton’s tweets as "Ignorant, irrelevant and exploitative."
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