Jay Leno has withdrawn from an appearance at a major gun industry event in January after pressure from anti-gun violence groups.
Leno was slated to perform at a "state of the industry" dinner in Las Vegas at the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show, a top annual event of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the Newtown, Conn.-based gun industry trade group.
The Newtown Action Alliance, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Campaign to Unload and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America all pushed Leno to cancel the gig.
Leno told Mother Jones magazine Nov. 19 that he canceled the appearance and contacted the Newtown Action Alliance. "I understand it's Newtown, and of course I get it," he told the NAA, according to Mother Jones. "It's just sometimes, mistakes get made."
The NSSF said it is "clearly disappointed" by Leno's decision. "He unilaterally cancalled his promised appearance due to pressure from the anti-gun lobby, which included false statements about our industry and its commitment to genuine firearms safety, which we attempted to personally correct with him, but to no avail," the group said in a statement.
The advocacy groups railed against NSSF's criticism and lobbying against attempts to strengthen gun laws in the wake of the Newtown school shooting in 2012. They argued that Leno lending his name to the group helped legitimize the industry's "crass commercialism which values profit over human lives."
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