Former President Donald Trump will deliver a speech in support of gun rights at a National Rifle Association event in Houston on Friday, days after a massacre with gunfire at a Texas elementary school sparked a fervent push to strengthen firearms laws.
An 18-year-old gunman, with a long AR-15-style rifle he had bought legally, opened fire Tuesday at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two adults, officials said. . The massacre was the deadliest school shooting in Texas history.
Trump confirmed on social media Wednesday afternoon that he would not cancel his appearance at the NRA’s annual “Leadership Forum” in light of the shooting. He suggested he would offer “real solutions and real leadership” in his speech at the NRA’s self-proclaimed “celebration of the rights of the Second Amendment.”
Other prominent Republicans, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, will join Trump in the event, which will begin at 2 p.m. Pacific time, according to the NRA.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who was scheduled to appear alongside Trump on Friday afternoon, will make a trip back to Uvalde and hold a press conference, his office said Thursday. Abbott will record a video message that will be played at the Houston Convention Center, less than a five-hour drive from the scene of the massacre.
Republican Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas announced Friday morning that he would cancel a planned appearance at an NRA breakfast “after consideration and discussion with NRA officials.”
“Although I am a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and a member of the NRA, I would not want my appearance today to bring any additional pain or sorrow to the families and all those who suffer in Uvalde,” Patrick said in a statement. . “This is a time to focus on families, first and foremost.”
A Cruz spokesman did not respond to requests from CNBC to confirm his attendance at the meeting.
Two other Texas Republicans, Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, told CNBC earlier this week that they had withdrawn from the conference before the UValde shooting.
Cornyn had an “unexpected change in schedule” and “must be in DC for personal reasons on Friday,” Cornyn spokeswoman Natalie Yezbick said in an email Wednesday.
Justin Discigil, Crenshaw’s chief of staff, said the congressman could not return from Kyiv, Ukraine, in time to attend the event.
Noem will speak at the forum, a spokesman for the governor confirmed to CNBC. Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina Mark Robinson is also scheduled to speak at the event.
Noem, in a promotional video shared on NRA social media over the weekend, paraphrased a quote from Charlton Heston, the missing actor and former NRA leader: “Joe Biden, I’ll give you my gun when the get out of my cold death. hands “.
President Joe Biden, who criticized the “gun lobby” in a somber speech Tuesday night, will travel to Uvalde on Sunday with First Lady Jill Biden to “cry with the community,” the White House said.
An ANR spokeswoman did not immediately confirm who would speak at Friday’s event.
In a statement on Wednesday, the ANR offered its “deepest condolences” to the victims and families affected by the “horrific and evil crime”. The group said it “would pledge to redouble our commitment to ensuring the safety of our schools.”
The NRA, the country’s most powerful gun rights organization, has opposed most efforts to restrict access to firearms, including expanding background checks on the purchase of firearms. weapons, a plan that supports most Democrats and gun control activists. Multiple bills to tighten background checks were passed in the Democratic-led House in 2019, but were stopped in the Senate.
Bipartisan talks on possible arms legislation, which appear to focus on stricter background checks and so-called red flag laws, resumed in the Senate this week. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Gave the green light to Cornyn to negotiate with Democrats on proposals that the Texas senator believes would have helped prevent the shooting in his state.
The NRA and some Republican lawmakers have suggested that the United States should strengthen security in public spaces and focus on mental health, among other proposals to address gun violence without restricting gun ownership. Cruz, for example, this week raised the idea that school buildings should only have one entrance that is guarded by an armed officer.
His critics say these arguments ignore the root of the problem. They often point out that mass shootings are much more common in the U.S. than in other nations where guns are much less common.
These critics have gone on the offensive after the massacre of Uvalde, which took place 10 days after an 18-year-old white man shot dead 10 people in a racial attack in a supermarket in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.
Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas, cracked down on Abbott’s press conference on Wednesday and reprimanded the governor for his handling of the mass shooting. After O’Rourke was escorted out of the room, Abbott asked Americans to “not focus on ourselves and our agendas,” but instead focus on healing.
Senate Minority Chuck Schumer, DN.Y. NRA two days later.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, said Thursday that his city could not cancel the NRA convention, which is scheduled to last all weekend, because “it would leave the city subject to a series of legal issues “.
“The biggest question is why elected officials are talking there and what message is sending that,” Turner said. “You can’t pray and send condolences one day and go to arms the next day.”