Protesters holding signs and crosses with photos of victims from the Texas elementary school shooting demonstrated Friday outside the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Houston, as the American gun lobby came under pressure after the massacre.
Attendance was dampened and speakers and featured musical acts stayed away as about 500 protesters, some shouting “NRA go away,” and “Shame, it could be your kids today,” jeered attendees outside the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Tuesday’s fatal shooting of 19 pupils and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, by an 18-year-old gunman equipped with an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle, again focused attention on the NRA, the biggest gun lobby in the U.S. and a major donor to Congress members, mostly Republicans.
Uvalde is about 280 miles (450 km) west of Houston.
Video of the main auditorium in Houston, which holds about 3,600 people, showed it to be about half-full as former President Donald Trump took the stage late Friday afternoon.
“The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law abiding citizens,” Trump told the audience to cheers, echoing speakers who rejected background checks or bans on semiautomatic weapons.
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