Opposing demonstrations on US firearms control
DALLAS: Protesters on both sides of the US 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 centre 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 colour of the gun control movement.
They watched as Manuel Oliver, whose 17yearold son, Joaquin, was killed in the February 14 massacre of 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida, spraypainted a mural
of kids running and a backpackwearing 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 Saturday.
‘‘You should be talking to the people we are now.’’
Two hours later, about 150 people attended a counter protest at the same site, many of them carrying sidearms and with rifles slung over their shoulders.
One of the organisers, Open Carry Texas president C.J. Grisham, said he has criticised the NRA in the past but wanted to show his support for fellow gun owners who have been vilified during gun control protests. — Reuters