Texas shooting: Trump advocates more guns for safe schools | International

In a recent post on their social networks, the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), with five million members, promoted a meme that showed a medicine bottle. The label says “hard to swallow pills”. And below this image a pill with what the organization considers an incontestable truth: the AR-15 is the most used self-defense rifle in the United States. The image was published three days before an 18-year-old boy entered a school in the town of Uvalde, Texas, with such weapons, killing 19 children and two teachers. The image, which has taken on another meaning, was still there this Friday, the day the ANR opens its annual convention in that same state and with the worst school massacre in a decade as a backdrop.

Former President Donald Trump has appeared on stage at the annual conference held in Houston, 400 kilometers from Uvalde, and which coincides with Memorial Day, a date on which soldiers who have fallen in combat are remembered. Before a dedicated public, Trump has exhibited the toughest speech of his in favor of weapons. The solution to tragedies like Uvalde’s is not to ban guns, but to have more guns, turn schools into fortresses with a single entrance, and arm teachers. “They have to be highly trained in all of those things, but let them do it. (…) There is no more attractive sign for a mass murderer than a sign declaring a weapons-free zone. (…) It is a total disaster, a good free zone. They look at that site and say that’s where I’m going. As the old saying goes, the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” he said, and in the absence of a cop, the best thing is, he has said, “an armed and trained member of the NRA ”, provoking the delirium of those present, who acclaimed him as the true president.

“The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens, the existence of evil is one of the best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens,” he insisted on that line.

Trump calls for multimillion-dollar funds “to quickly establish impenetrable security in every school in the country.” “Inner city schools rarely have these kinds of mass shootings. (…) The reason is that for decades they have had much stronger security measures, including metal detectors and yes, armed guards. What’s stopping Democrats from immediately passing measures to increase school safety? How many more tragedies will it take until they agree to put aside their far-left political agenda and see what is really needed and what really works?”, he has defiantly launched.

“If the United States has $40 billion to send to Ukraine, we should be able to do whatever it takes to keep our children safe at home,” Trump said. “We spent billions in Iraq and Afghanistan, and got nothing for it. Before we build a nation in the rest of the world, we should build safe schools for our own children in our own nation,” he added.

Texas loose regulation

Texas is one of the states with some of the most lax gun regulations in the country. It is an entity that is open carry, which means that anyone over the age of 21 can carry a gun on the street. Despite this, pistols and rifles have been banned from Trump’s speech by Secret Service security protocols.

Texas is a benchmark for supporters of the Second Amendment because it has legislated against any type of regulation. One of the architects of this is Governor Greg Abbott, another of the personalities invited to the conference, together with the senior staff of his party, the Republican. Abbott, who is playing for re-election in November, has canceled his participation at the last minute. A spokesman assured local media on Thursday night that the president will record a video message and that he will go to Uvalde, the site of the massacre. The governor will visit the small community, close to the border, at a time when criticism of police action and response to the shooter is growing, who spent at least 80 minutes inside the school before a tactical team arrived at take him down

Abbott’s cancellation has been followed by others that have taken some of the shine off the organization’s most important event, which for decades has been the most important defense lobby for guns in Washington. Two other Texas legislators, but with a national profile, have canceled their appearance. Among these, Dan Crenshaw, a veteran congressman who was a member of the elite corps of the Navy SEALs in Afghanistan. Recognizable by his patch over his left eye, which he lost in combat on his third trip to the Asian country, the legislator reported on Wednesday that his agenda had changed and that he would visit Ukraine and would not be able to be back in time for the meeting. . US Senator John Cornyn has also cited scheduling issues.

A tense weekend is expected. Some civil organizations have protested at the opening of the convention, which takes place in downtown Houston. Two of the largest teachers’ unions in the country are present at the demonstration and have called for you to join it. The American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association charge against the NRA, which considers that the response to shootings is to arm educators or reinforce the caliber of weapons that school guards have. Two surviving teachers of the Sandy Hook massacre, which occurred in December 2012 and left 20 children dead, are expected to participate in these events.

The conference has also lost its luster in its event of soft power, the cultural part of the gun lobby. Don McLean, the singer-songwriter of the popular theme American Pie, has canceled his concert directly saying that it would be “disrespectful and harmful”. Country singer Lee Greenwood, who wrote a song that often serves as the soundtrack for many of Trump’s rallies, has also canceled. “After much thought, we have decided to cancel our concert out of respect for all those who are grieving the loss of innocent children and teachers from Uvalde,” the author of God Loves America wrote in a statement.

One step further has been taken by the musician Larry Gatlin, a member of the popular trio Gatlin Brothers and originally from Texas. Unlike the singers mentioned, the musician has said that he is in favor of a minimum regulation of weapons. “While the background check will not stop any lunatic with a gun, I believe it is the smallest step in the right direction in trying to prevent tragedies like the one we saw this week in Uvalde,” Gatlin said in a statement. His proposal, similar to the one made by the Democrats, has the unison rejection of the majority of Republicans and the NRA itself.

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