Protests staged for gun control, gun rights outside NRA meeting

DALLAS, (Reuters) - Protesters on both sides of the U.S. gun debate took to the streets yesterday outside the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas after the latest in a long series of mass shootings put the issue back in the spotlight.

Across the street from the convention center where President Donald Trump addressed NRA members on Friday, a “Rally4Reform” drew about 200 demonstrators demanding tighter restrictions on firearms sales. Many were dressed in the orange that has become the color of the gun control movement.

They watched as Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son, Joaquin, was killed in the Feb. 14 massacre of 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida, spray painted a mural of kids running and a backpack-wearing student in a rifle’s crosshairs.

Many flinched and some sobbed as he hit the wall with a hammer to simulate the sound of gunfire.

“You were in the wrong room yesterday,” Oliver said of Trump, who enthusiastically embraced the NRA on Friday. “You should be talking to the people we are now.”

Two hours later, about 150 people attended a counterprotest at the same site in support of the NRA, many of them carrying sidearms and with rifles slung over their shoulders.

One of the organizers, Open Carry Texas President C.J. Grisham, said he has criticized the NRA in the past but wanted to show his support for fellow gun owners who have been vilified during gun control protests.

“When you’ve got groups who have no idea what they’re talking about, going after the largest organization dedicated to preserving liberty, then I feel like we have a duty to stand up,” Grisham said.