HOUSTON (AP) – One by one, they took to the stage at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention and denounced the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at a statewide elementary school. And one by one, they insisted that further restricting access to firearms was not the answer to prevent future tragedies.
“The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens,” said former President Donald Trump, who was among the Republicans who lined up to speak in front of the lobby. gun rights Friday as thousands of protesters became angry over guns. violence manifested abroad.
“The existence of evil is one of the best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens,” he said.
The meeting came just three days after the shooting in Uvalde and as the nation struggled with revelations that students trapped inside a classroom with the gunman repeatedly called 911 during the attack, one asking “Send the police now, “as officers waited in the hallway. for more than 45 minutes.
The NRA had said that those attending the convention would “reflect on” the shooting at the event and “pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members and pledge to redouble our commitment to ensuring the safety of our schools.” .
The meeting was the first for the troubled organization since 2019, after a two-year hiatus due to the pandemic. The organization has tried to regroup after a period of severe legal and financial turmoil that included a failed bankruptcy effort, a class action lawsuit and a fraud investigation by the New York Attorney General. Once among the most powerful political organizations in the country, the NRA has seen its influence wane after a major drop in political spending.
Wayne LaPierre, the group’s chief executive, opened the program with statements lamenting “the twenty-one beautiful lives ruthless and indiscriminate by a criminal monster.”
However, he said that “restricting the fundamental human rights of law-abiding Americans to defend themselves is not the answer. It has never been.”
Later, several hundred people in the auditorium stood up and bowed their heads in a moment of silence for the victims of the shooting. Several thousand people were inside the auditorium during the parliaments, which appeared less than the number gathered outside. Many seats were empty.
Trump accused Democrats of trying to exploit the tragedy and demonizing gun owners.
“When Joe Biden blamed the gun lobby, he was talking about Americans like you,” Trump said, referring to the president’s emotional petition in a national address asking, “When, in the name of God, we will we face the arms lobby? “
He called for a review of school safety and the national approach to mental health, telling the group that each school building should have a single point of entry, strong exterior fences, metal detectors and hardened classroom doors, and that each school should have a police officer or an armed guard. duty at all times. He also called once again for trained teachers to be able to carry concealed weapons into the classroom.
He and other speakers overlooked the security improvements that already existed in the primary school and did not stop the gunman, who entered the building through a back door that had opened.
According to a district safety plan, Uvalde schools have a wide range of safety measures. The district had four police officers and four support counselors, according to the plan, which appears to date from the 2019-20 school year. It also had social media monitoring software to detect threats and software to filter school visitors.
Security experts say the Uvalde case illustrates how fortified schools can be counterproductive. A lock on the classroom door, for example, one of the most basic and recommended school safety measures, kept the victims inside and the police outside.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who, like Trump, is considered a potential presidential candidate in 2024, has criticized Democrats for calling for a universal background check on arms purchases and a arms ban. assault and instead pointed to broken families, declining church attendance, media harassment and video games as the real problems.
“Tragedies like this week’s event are a mirror that forces us to ask difficult questions, demanding that we see where our culture is failing,” he said. “We must not react to evil and tragedy by abandoning the Constitution or violating the rights of our law-abiding citizens.”
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, another potential presidential candidate, said calls to further restrict access to guns are about control and are rubbish. I don’t buy it for a second and you shouldn’t do it either. “
Some scheduled speakers and performers withdrew from the event, including several Texas lawmakers and American Pie singer Don McLean, who said it would be “disrespectful” to go ahead with his act after the event. ‘last mass shooting in the country. Texas Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday morning that he had decided not to speak at an event’s breakfast after a “consideration and discussion with NRA officials.”
“Although I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and a member of the NRA, I would not want my appearance today to bring any additional pain or sorrow to the families and all those who suffer in Uvalde,” he wrote in a statement.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who was to attend, addressed the convention via a pre-recorded video.
Outside the convention hall, protesters gathered in a park where police installed metal barriers, some with crosses with photos of Uvalde’s victims firing.
“Assassins!” they shouted some in Spanish. “What a shame!” others called the attendees.
Among the protesters was the singer Little Joe, of the popular Texan band Little Joe and La Familia, who said that in the more than 60 years he has spent touring the world, no other country where he has been has faced so many mass shootings like the US.
“Of course, this is the best country in the world,” he said. “But what good is it if we can’t protect our lives, especially those of our children?”
Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging Abbott for the governor’s career, marked a list of previous school shootings and called on convention attendees to “join us in making sure this doesn’t happen again in this country.” “.
Although Biden and Democrats in Congress have renewed calls for stricter gun laws following the Uvalde shooting, members of the NRA board and other conference attendees dismissed the ban. access to firearms.
Samuel Thornburg, 43, a Southwest Airlines maintenance worker in Houston who attended the NRA meeting, said: “Weapons are not bad. Evil is the people who commit the crime. Our schools have to “Be more closed. There needs to be more guards.”
There are precedents for the NRA to meet during local mourning and controversy. The organization released a shortened version of its 1999 meeting in Denver about a week after the deadly shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.
Texas has experienced a series of mass shootings in recent years. During this time, the Republican-led legislature and governor have relaxed gun laws.
Most American adults think mass shootings would occur less frequently if guns were harder to get, and believe schools and other public places have become less secure than they were two decades ago, according to polls.
Many specific measures that would curb access to weapons or ammunition also receive majority support. A May AP-NORC poll found, for example, that 51% of American adults favor a national ban on the sale of AR-15 rifles and similar semi-automatic weapons. But the numbers are very partisan, with 75% of Democrats agreeing with only 27% of Republicans.
Although personal firearms were allowed at the convention, weapons were not allowed during the session with Trump due to Secret Service security protocols.
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Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer David A. Lieb contributed from Jefferson City, Missouri.
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Learn more about school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: