NRA event held after Texas massacre… 500 people protest
My heart aches for the shooting, but ‘you can’t blame the gun’
Politico claims “left-wing script to push for mental illness and gun control”
The National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention event, which opened in Houston, Texas on the 27th, symbolically revealed the sharply divided ‘two Americas’ over gun control.
According to AFP and Reuters, about 500 protesters gathered outside the venue that day and held up signs that read ‘Your hands are bloody’ and shouted, “Stop the NRA,” and “It could have been your children,” and condemned the NRA. .
The NRA is one of the largest firearms lobbying organizations in the United States.
Protesters took to the streets calling for stricter gun control measures after a massacre that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers at Rob Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on the 24th.
The protesters especially condemned the NRA event after only three days had passed since the disaster.
But gun proponents at the event insisted on increasing gun ownership.
Keith Jeren, 68, wearing a plaid shirt reminiscent of a military uniform and a Trump hat, said she was heartbroken by the shooting, but said, “You can’t blame the gun.”
“There have always been guns in this country,” said Jeren, who owns more than 50 personal firearms.
The NRA held the event just 440 kilometers from the elementary school where the shooting took place.
Among the firearms displayed in the exhibition hall was an AR-15 rifle used by shooter Salvador Ramos (18).
Some Americans argue that guns are a means of self-defense and a constitutional right.
“Any effort to take guns out of American hands will fail,” said Rick Gaman, 51, a retired law enforcement agent.
The lack of progress on gun control in the United States is because they have been fiercely opposed to restrictions on gun possession under the Second Amendment.
It is said that the NRA is behind them. As with the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado, which killed 13 people, the NRA was again at the center of the anti-regulatory voice.
The NRA gathered powerful politicians, including former President Donald Trump, to show off their support.
According to the American political media Politico, there are even baseless conspiracy theories floating around at the NRA event.
“At the NRA event, many people claimed that the primary school shooting was caused by the gun, not the gun, but by mental illness or a left-wing script to push gun control,” Politico said.
“Republicans and gun lobby groups have again called for more money to be spent on school security and mental health (rather than gun control),” the report said.
<By Eugene Lee>
