Influencer Jackie O refuses to apologise after saying shootings don't happen in 'expensive' movie theatres

She says point of her podcast is to be 'honest about our feelings and innermost thoughts'

Jackie O says she won't apologise for comments about movie theatre shootings (Getty)

Influencer Jackie Oshry, known as Jackie O, has announced that she will not be apologising for controversial comments she made about shootings being less likely to happen in expensive movie theatres.

Speaking on her podcast The Morning Toast on Tuesday, which she hosts alongside her sister and fellow influencer Claudia Oshry (@girlwithnojob), Jackie said that recently she feels safer going to the cinema because of “the elevation of the movie theatre experience”.

Revealing that she used to feel scared going to see a movie, she said: “I don’t feel that way anymore with the elevation of the movie theatre experience, with iPic and some of the nicer movie theatres.”

After her sister agreed, Jackie continued: “If you’re going to shoot up a movie theatre, it’s not going to be the most expensive one.”

The comments sparked backlash among the podcast’s listeners, who urged Jackie to apologise for the “insensitive” remarks, according to BuzzFeed.

However, the 26-year-old instead attempted to explain her reasoning in a Facebook comment - by making the point that shooters would likely choose a theatre where tickets cost less money.

In a screenshot of the comment, Jackie said: “Overall, I was just saying I’ve been feeling safer in movie theatres (a place that for a long time I didn’t feel safe in because of all the horrible tragedies) because why would a shooter pay $30 for a movie when they can pay $15.”

On Wednesday’s podcast, the influencer doubled-down on her comments, and announced that she has no intention of apologising because she can’t say she’s sorry “for every small thing, otherwise I don’t feel empowered to just speak my mind”.

Acknowledging that she’d been asked by many people to apologise, Jackie said: “People really want me to apologise, and I’ve thought about this… and I’m not going to apologise for what I said.”

According to Jackie, people made her comments into “so much more than it is” but she “didn’t mean anything more or less than what I said”.

“There are enough shows out there that will handle serious matters very seriously. And you can get that experience somewhere else," she said.

The sisters previously faced criticism after it was revealed by The Daily Beast that they are the daughters of Pamela Geller, a Breitbart columnist known for being an anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist.