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NRA-affiliated Tweet gives new meaning to bad timing in light of Aurora theatre shooting

In what can only be construed as a bout of horrible timing, a Twitter account associated with the National Rifle Association has had to remove a message it published early Friday.

Because surely, the author of the American Rifleman's tweet would never have posted: "Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?" had he or she read news headlines of the mass shooting in a Colorado movie theatre.

Right? Well, one can only hope.

Twelve people were killed and dozens injured after former medical student James Holmes, 24, allegedly opened fire during an early Friday screening of The Dark Knight Rises at a suburban Denver cinema.

The tweet appeared several hours later, at approximately 9:20 a.m. EST.

Mashable notes that the offending message was sent out through social media management platform Hootsuite — a factor that suggests the post might have been pre-programmed.

But it wasn't removed until 12:15 p.m., allowing ample time for the Internet to retaliate.

In response to the poorly timed query, John DiCicco replied: "Yeah, just gonna mourn a bit. And you?"

Tweeter Steffi5461 was a little less diplomatic, writing: "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU????? PSYCHOS>."

NRA press rep claimed to know nothing of the tweet's existence.