The National Rifle Association (NRA) kicked off its annual convention in Houston, Texas, just days after the brutal massacre at a state school, with presenters one by one lamenting the tragedy, but also rejecting any suggestion about improving gun control to prevent mass shootings, sometimes with false or misleading claims.
Gun rights activists and other politicians, mostly Republican leaders, said Friday they were appalled, horrified and shocked by the Uvalde school shooting, in which a young man killed 19 children and two teachers.
But then speakers
blamed the carnage on factors that had nothing to do with guns
: the breakdown of the American family, untreated mental illness, bullying on social media, violent video games, and the inexplicable existence of "evil." ”.
Former President Donald Trump, speaking in the event's main session on Friday night, called for "impenetrable security at every school in our country," adding that "
schools should be the hardest target
."
[“My son is no longer going to be returned to me”: the father of a child murdered in Uvalde advocates for gun control]
Similarly, the attendees advocate school safety, in line with the initial reaction after the shooting of some officials and representatives who even suggested giving teachers more training in school safety.
Two teachers died trying to protect their students Tuesday in the classroom where the attacker barricaded himself, according to witnesses.
Why hasn't the US changed gun control laws?
May 27, 202201:52
In doing so, the speeches
deflected pressure from reforms most Americans agree with,
such as criminal background checks on those who buy and carry guns.
Speakers focused on the topic of school safety, amid reports that the gunman in Uvalde gained easy access to Robb Elementary School through an unguarded gate.
Protests are taking place outside the convention, where hundreds of protesters have expressed outrage over gun violence, some of them holding crosses with photos of the child victims of the Uvalde shooting.
Several of the same protesters are children around the same age as those who were killed and carry signs that say,
“Don't shoot
. ”
“They've been doing this for years,” said Kellye Burke, 54, a gun control activist from Houston who participated in an anti-NRA protest in the park across from the convention center.
“They talk about the tragedy and then blame it on something other than weapons,” she remarked in an interview with The New York Times.
What Trump says and what his government did
Trump began his speech by somberly reciting the names of those killed in Uvalde, to the sound of recorded church bells.
But he was quick to blame President Joe Biden for increasing military spending instead of paying for better school security.
The Biden administration has spent billions in aid to improve education in schools.
[“The city of Uvalde is very disconsolate”: Latinos worry about the effects of the shooting on their mental health]
In 2018, after the shooting in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 students were killed, the Trump Administration convened a school safety commission.
His most concrete step was to repeal school policies intended to ensure that minority children were not unfairly disciplined, which critics said did not directly address the problem of gun violence.
misleading claims
Prominent Republicans defended the right to bear arms with some misleading claims about the effectiveness of gun restrictions, about the consequences of owning weapons and about school shootings, according to an analysis of the veracity of the speeches of the aforementioned newspaper. .
"Gun bans don't work, look at Chicago."
This is misleading.
Chicago, Illinois, has imposed gun control regulations and in 2020 was the city with the highest number of homicides in the country.
But experts explain that this is due to its population: it is the third largest city.
Adjusted for population, the firearm homicide rate was 25.2 per 100,000 inhabitants.
That puts it 26th in the country for gun violence, not first, according to data compiled by the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety.
The three cities with the highest firearm homicide rates: Jackson, Mississippi;
Gary, Indiana;
and St.Louis, Missouri.
These states have more permissive gun laws than Illinois.
In addition, that state is not the one with the most restrictive regulation in the country.
Assault rifles have already been banned and it had no impact.
This is exaggerated.
In 1994, the possession, transfer or domestic manufacture of some semi-automatic assault weapons was prohibited for 10 years.
The Department of Justice commissioned a study in 2004 on the effect of this measure on the level of crimes.
Gun advocates say the study found the impact could be minimal since semi-automatic weapons are rarely used in crimes.
But authors have clarified the results were not conclusive in that regard.
“My work is often misquoted,” said one of the authors, Christopher Koper, a professor at George Mason University. These laws can reduce gun crime in general, and reduce the number and severity of mass shootings, remarked.
Former President Donald Trump speaks during the Leadership Forum at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston.Michael Wyke/AP
There are no more guns per capita in the US than there were 50 or 100 years ago, and shootings are rising just the same.
This is misleading.
Gun ownership metrics are being skewed.
The number of guns per capita roughly doubled between 1968 and 2012, according to the Congressional Research Service, and has been on the rise ever since.
Politicians who support the NRA may be referring to a recent Gallup poll on gun ownership, analysts say, but that study doesn't look at per capita numbers.
Inner city schools rarely experience shootings, and that's because they take security measures (Trump).
This is misleading
.
Many shootings have occurred in suburban and rural areas, but schools in cities also experience gun violence.
A 2020 report from the Government Accountability Office examined 318 shootings from the 2009-10 school year through the 2018-19 school year.
Nearly half, 47%, occurred in urban areas.
The evidence also does not support that posting armed guards decreases mass shootings.
A 2019 review by the New York State Association of School Boards looked at 133 school shootings from 1980 to 2019 and found "no association between having an armed officer and violence deterrence in these cases."
Biden wants the UN to be in charge of controlling the Second Amendment
.
This is false
.
The politicians are referring to a report that said the Biden administration was considering re-entering an international arms treaty: the 2014 Arms Trade Treaty. But this agreement regulates international sales of conventional weapons (such as tanks, vehicles, fighters, warships, missiles and firearms).
It does not put United Nations officials in charge of gun laws in the United States.
The treaty aims to establish international standards to regulate arms sales between countries and address illegal arms sales.
It prohibits the sale of weapons to nations that are subject to arms embargoes or that will use them to commit genocide, terrorism, war crimes, or attacks against civilians.
The Texas massacre happened less than a year after the state expanded access to guns.
May 25, 202202:15
Absent politicians and musical artists
Trump was greeted by thunderous applause from his supporters, some of whom were wearing NRA gear and faded Trump-Pence campaign T-shirts.
However, the convention was not entirely full on Friday.
The forum hosting Trump was held in an auditorium that appeared to be about three-quarters full.
[How Gun Violence Against Children and Teens on the Rise in the US]
The convention also had its share of no-shows.
Governor Greg Abbott of Texas and the state's senior senator, John Cornyn, did not attend the event, citing other commitments.
Several prominent music artists, including Lee Greenwood, Don McLean, and Larry Gatlin, opted out, citing their respect for the victims and their families.