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In the hours following the deaths of at least 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, in the deadliest mass shooting at an American school in nearly a decade, Republicans in Congress joined the world to mourn the latest massacre with weapons.
But while some have offered their thoughts and prayers to the families of the victims, critics have been quick to point out the millions of dollars GOP lawmakers have taken from the National Rifle Association in contributions over the years.
Nineteen current or recent Republican senators, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) And Senators Rob Portman (Ohio) and Joni Ernst (Iowa), have raised at least $ 1 million each in campaign contributions. the NRA throughout its careers, according to data compiled by the Brady campaign to prevent armed violence in 2019.
Senator Mitt Romney (R-Utah), among others, expressed how “pain overwhelms the soul” in an attack like the one in Texas, and acknowledged on Twitter that his offer of prayers and condolences was ” grainy inadequate “and that answers were needed. Critics and Liberals were quick to criticize Romney, who was the 2012 Republican presidential candidate and spoke at the NRA’s annual convention that year, for receiving more than $ 13 million in contributions from the NRA. NRA, according to Brady.
“Mourning doesn’t overwhelm the soul nearly as much as the $ 13 million NRA overwhelms your bank account,” wrote Jemele Hill, a collaborating Atlantic writer. “The answer you are looking for is the money you keep taking.”
Hours after the mass shooting in Uvalde, President Biden urged Congress to end the “carnage” of gun violence, and urged lawmakers to “confront the gun lobby” and pass gun laws. common sense”.
“Why, in the name of God, do you need an assault weapon except to kill someone?” he asked in a Tuesday address to the nation.
21 killed in a Texas school shooting; victims of the same fourth grade classroom
Biden, who was selected by President Barack Obama to be his main gunman after the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, he noted that he had just returned from Asia, where mass shootings do not occur as often.
“Why are we willing to live with this butchery?” He said. “Why do we keep letting this happen? Where, in the name of God, is our spine?”
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) stepped down Tuesday evening to put two House-approved arms control bills on the House calendar.
Parents and community members in Uvalde, Texas, sought information on students who were the victims of the May 24 robbery at Robb Elementary School. (Video: John Farrell / The Washington Post)
Spokesmen for McConnell, Portman and Ernst did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Romney spokeswoman Brianna Manzelli told the Washington Post that online criticism of the senator was off-base.
“No one owns Senator Romney’s vote, as evidenced by his record of independence in the Senate,” he said in a statement.
Mass shooting at elementary school and Biden’s call for lawmakers to step back into the gun lobby have drew attention to the NRA, which is holding its annual Memorial Day weekend in Houston. located a few hundred kilometers from Uvalde. The event is the largest arms lobby meeting this year and is coming after cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic. It will feature talks from a group that includes former President Donald Trump, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (Dr.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (r-Tex.). Abbott is expected to be in Uvalde Wednesday before his talk at the NRA convention in Houston.
Trump will speak at the NRA meeting in Texas days after the school shooting
The NRA, which has more than 5 million members, is fighting a lawsuit by the New York Attorney General accusing the group’s executives of spending millions of dollars wrong.
Many critics went on social media to list how much money Republican lawmakers would have taken from the NRA, but comedy writer Bess Kalb went a step further and cited all the Republican senators’ responses to how much they received during the campaign. . contributions from the arms lobby.
After McConnell tweeted how “horrified and heartbroken” he was by the shooting in Uvalde and how the country was praying for those affected, Kalb, the executive producer of Amazon Prime’s “Yearly Departed,” used Brady’s data in response. of a phrase: “$ 1,267,139 from the NRA.”
Kalb continued to respond to Republicans by offering his thoughts and prayers — Ernst, Portman, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) —With the millions of dollars in NRA contributions they have received.
Others soon followed the online trend. In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday evening, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Said “there are no proper words to express the horror” of what happened in Texas. Romney echoed the acknowledgment that condolences were not appropriate, while suggesting that more could be done.
“Obviously my most sincere condolences, but that’s not appropriate. That’s depressing. Something so horrible, kids are being massacred at their school, it’s no worse than that,” he said. “Once again, my deepest condolences to these families.”
There are no proper words to express horror in Robb Elementary. My sincerest condolences to these families. Something so horrible, kids are massacred at their school, it’s no worse than that. pic.twitter.com/mlrY4Sb0Iu
– Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) May 24, 2022
Nina Turner, a progressive leader who lost a Democratic primary in Ohio earlier this month, highlighted Johnson’s comment as “not worse than that” and reminded people that she has taken more than 1, $ 2 million in contributions to the NRA campaign.
“In fact, yes,” he wrote Wednesday. “Powerful adults (you) do nothing because the NRA paid you $ 1,269,486 for doing nothing. You sacrificed the lives of those children for $ 1.2 million.”
After MP Tony Gonzales (R-Tex.), Whose district includes Uvalde, asked voters to “pray for our families” and quote a Bible verse, critics resurfaced a 2021 tweet in which Congressman he said proudly that he had “voted NO to two arms control measures in the House.”
“Professional advice: Jesus wants you to use your power as a legislator to act to stop armed violence in Uvalde instead of quoting the Bible versus taking money out of the NRA,” said Shannon Watts, founder of the nonprofit organization. Armed Violence Prevention Profit Moms Demand. Action for Gun Sense in America.
Others pointed to Republican lawmakers who expressed anger at the shooting days before speaking at the NRA convention in Houston. When Cruz tweeted that he and his wife, Heidi, were “fervently raising children and families in the horrific shooting in Uvalde,” MP Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (DN.Y.) wondered why the Texas senator, who has accepted at least $ 176,000 in NRA contributions; he was still scheduled to speak at the convention.
“You can do more than pray,” he tweeted. “Faith without works is dead.”
Adela Suliman and Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report