Some members of the crowd at CNN's town hall on guns Wednesday night jeered National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch's story about a young rape survivor who wished she was armed.
Held in Sunrise, Florida, the town hall moderated by Jake Tapper allowed students, faculty and parents connected to Stoneman Douglas High School to ask questions about gun laws and possible reforms, in the wake of last week's mass shooting at the high school that left 17 dead.
Loesch faced a hostile environment from the start, given the pro-gun control tenor of the audience and questioners. Asked why the NRA didn't support raising the age to buy a semiautomatic rifle from 18 to 21, she pivoted to the story of Kimberly Corban, who was raped in her college dorm at age 20 in 2006.
"But I also think of young women, and you’ve had a previous town hall, where you spoke with a young woman named Kim Corban, who was a college student who was brutally raped in her dorm, and she was under the age of 21," Loesch said.
Corban challenged President Barack Obama about his gun executive orders during another CNN town hall in 2016.
"And one of the things that she speaks out about loudly now is how she wished she would have had the ability to be able to have some sort—a shotgun, whatever it was, to be able to defend herself," Loesch said, as many in the crowd jeered loudly.
Loesch said if someone was old enough to vote or serve in the military, they should be able to purchase a gun, with the caveat that you're not a dangerous person.
Loesch and Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel participated in the second half of the forum after Florida Sens. Marco Rubio (R.) and Bill Nelson (D.) and Florida Rep. Ted Deutch (D.).