Gregg Abbott will only send a video message for the event that begins today in his state, mourning the death of 21 people killed with weapons long in a school. Most were children up to 10 years old
Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention in Dallas, Texas, United States, on May 4, 2018 (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File)
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who was scheduled to speak this Friday on the first day of the National Rifle Association (NRA) annual meeting, canceled his presence to attend a conference on press about the Uvalde school shooting.
However, Abbott will participate in the convention “via a pre-recorded video,” its spokesman, Mark Miner, told the Dallas Morning News on Thursday.
The event at the NRA begins this Friday at 7 pm (GMT) in Houston, more than 400 kilometers away from Uvalde. Many speakers and performers canceled after Tuesday’s shooting.
American Pie singer Don McLean, Restless Heart frontman Larry Stewart, and country singer Larry Gatlin decided not to play the event, as scheduled, in solidarity with the victims and their families.
The George R. Brown Convention Center, site of the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual convention, is seen in Houston, Texas, United States, on May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton
In addition, the New York Timesreported that the leaders of the two largest teachers’ unions in the US plan to travel to Houston to protest. Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, and Randi Weingarten,president of the American Federation of Teachers, they would join two teachers who survived previous school shootings in Parkland, Florida, in 2018, and in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012.
“I have decided that it would be disrespectful and hurtful for me to act,” McLean said in a statement.“I am sure everyone who plans to attend this event is also shocked and disgusted by these events” .
In a statement provided to The Tennessean, Gatlin said he “cannot in good conscience” play this weekend . Gatlin called himself a “Second Amendment guy,” but said he believes the right to bear arms shouldn’t apply to everyone.
For his In addition, Abbott will speak about the school shooting this Friday at a news conference at 8:30 p.m. (GMT), which his office said will take place after “a briefing with state agencies, local officials and community members.”