Protesters gather outside NRA convention. A huge and passionate group of protesters angered over the shooting deaths of Texas elementary school students converged Friday outside the gun lobby annual convention in Houston.
The protesters held crosses with photos of shooting victims and shouted, “NRA go away,” and “Shame, it could be your kids today,” as hundreds of members of the nation’s biggest gun lobby arrived at the conventional hall.
Silent protest by children at the NRA Convention in Houston, Texas. pic.twitter.com/yPbDEgGXt7
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) May 27, 2022
Protesters gather outside NRA convention
National Rifle Association members at the group’s annual meeting Friday repeated their opposition to stronger gun-control measures as protesters outraged over the mass shooting at an elementary school that is just four hours away, said it was beyond time for action.
Tuesday’s fatal shooting of 19 Uvalde, Texas, students and two teachers by an 18-year-old gunman equipped with an AR-15 style semiautomatic assault rife is expected to limit attendance at the group’s first convention in three years.
NRA Convention in Houston
Uvalde is about 280 miles (450 km) west of Houston but that didn’t stop the people from turning up in their numbers.
Former President Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican of Texas, are scheduled to deliver addresses on Friday afternoon. Two other speakers, Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Lt. Governor Dan Patrick dropped out of in-person remarks.
Inside the massive convention in Houston, attendees shopped for NRA-themed T-shirts and caps, whose sales help finance the group’s programs. The hall had hundreds of exhibits by gun manufacturers, showing off handguns, hunting rifles and assault rifles.
No sympathy for the dead
Protestor Johnny Mata called on the NRA to halt the convention and hold a memorial service for the victims saying the NRA had no sympathy for the dead.
“They have the audacity not to cancel in respect of these families, said Mata, who represented the advocacy group Greater Houston Coalition for Justice. The NRA should “quit being a part of the assassination of children in American schools.”
The NRA’s decision to proceed with its largest annual gathering is part of a decades-long strategy of standing up to pressure for gun control that dates to the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.
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