NRA meets in Texas days after massacre at school
Group’s CEO says US ‘in mourning’ but defends gun owners
HOUSTON — The National Rifle Association’s chief executive kicked off the group’s annual convention in Houston on Friday vigorously defending the rights of gun owners three days after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school in another part of Texas.
With protesters shouting outside, Wayne LaPierre said tragedies like the shooting in Uvalde “should never happen again.” He declared, ”Every NRA member and I know every decent American is mourning right now. Twenty-one beautiful lives ruthlessly and indiscriminately extinguished by a criminal monster.”
Still, he added that “restricting the fundamental human rights of law-abiding Americans to defend themselves is not the answer.”
Former President Donald Trump and other Republican leaders lined up to speak later at the event. Hundreds of protesters demonstrated outside, including some holding crosses with photos of the shooting victims.
With the protesters, Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in the governor’s race, ticked off a list of previous school shootings and called on those attending the convention to “join us to make sure that this no longer happens in this country.”
Some scheduled speakers and performers backed out of the event, including several Texas lawmakers. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said Friday morning that he had decided not to speak at an event breakfast after “prayerful consideration and discussion with NRA officials.”
The NRA said that people attending the gun show would “pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure.”
The meeting is the first for the troubled organization since 2019, following a two-year hiatus because of the pandemic. The organization also has been trying to regroup following a period of turmoil that included a failed bankruptcy effort, a class-action lawsuit and a fraud investigation by New York’s attorney general.
While President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress have renewed calls for stricter gun laws in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, NRA board members and others attending the conference dismissed talk of banning or limiting access to firearms.
Larry Miller, 56, from Huntington Beach, California, said he had no problem with the NRA meeting taking place. He called the Uvalde shooting “very sad and unfortunate” and said the gunman didn’t “have any respect for the people’s freedoms that we have here in this country.”
“We all share these rights, so to be respectful of other people’s rights is to respect other people’s lives, and I think with that kind of mentality, we should be here,” he said.
Inside the convention hall, thousands of people walked around, stopping at booths that featured displays of handguns, rifles, AR-style firearms, knives, clothing and gun racks.
Outside, police set up barriers at a park where hundreds of protesters and counterprotesters gathered in front of the downtown convention center.
Country music singer Larry Gatlin, who pulled out of a planned appearance at this year’s convention, said he hoped “the NRA will rethink some of its outdated and ill-thought-out positions.”
“While I agree with most of the positions held by the NRA, I have come to believe that, while background checks would not stop every madman with a gun, it is at the very least a step in the right direction,” Gatlin said.
Most U.S. adults think that mass shootings would occur less often if guns were harder to get and believe schools and other public places have become less safe than they were two decades ago, polling finds.
Many specific measures that would curb access to guns or ammunition also get majority support. A May AP-NORC poll found, for instance, that 51% of U.S. adults favor a nationwide ban on the sale of AR-15 rifles and similar semiautomatic weapons. But the numbers are highly partisan, with 75% percent of Democrats agreeing versus just 27% of Republicans.
In addition to Patrick, two Texas congressmen who had been scheduled speak Friday — Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw — were no longer attending because of what their staffs said were changes in their schedules. Abbott, who was to attend, was to address the convention by prerecorded video instead.
Others going forward with their appearances included Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Trump, who said Wednesday that he would deliver “an important address to America.”