NRA's social media accounts go silent in wake of school shooting

The National Rifle Association has gone silent on its social media accounts in the wake of the tragic mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., on Friday.

The gun-rights advocacy group appears to have removed its official Facebook page from the social networking website. Attempts to access the NRA's Facebook page were directed to a Wikipedia entry about the lobbying organization. Comments or Web links shared by Facebook friends about the organization are still visible below the lobbying group's Wikipedia entry. 

The NRA's Twitter account is still accessible, but has been silent since Friday. The organization sent out its last tweet shortly after 6:30 a.m. on Friday, which was regarding a holiday giveaway contest to win an "auto emergency tool."

The NRA did not respond to requests for comment.

Since the fatal shooting that took the lives of 20 children on Friday, people have taken to Facebook and Twitter to either criticize the NRA's pro-gun stance or voice support for the group, as well as debate the divisive topic of gun control in the United States.

The blog TechCrunch suggested that "pro- and anti-gun citizens likely would have gone to war" on the NRA's Facebook wall after news of the shooting broke out, putting the group in a tough corner where it either would have had to make an early statement about the shooting or step in and moderate the heated comments on its page.

The NRA also faced criticism this summer after a Twitter account associated with the group sent out a tweet the morning after the mass shooting at a movie theater Aurora, Colo., according to TechCrunch. The gun-rights organization later deleted the tweet and told CNN that the individual who published it was unaware of the shooting in Aurora.