Don McLean; LarryStewart; and Larry Gatlin decided not to play at the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association. In addition, the leaders of the two largest teachers’ unions in the US will join protests by teachers who are survivors of previous shootings
Don McLean will not participate in the annual convention (REUTERS/Brendan McDermid/File Photo)
The 2022 National Rifle Association (NRA) annual convention begins Friday in Houston, Texas, about 400 km east of where the deadly shooting occurred on Tuesday in the small town of Uvalde. American Pie singer Don McLean, Restless Heart frontman Larry Stewart, and country singer Larry Gatlin decided not to perform at the event, as scheduled, in solidarity with the victims and their families.
In addition, the New York Times reported 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, 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’m sure everyone planning 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.
“Although I agree with In most NRA positions, I’ve come to believe that while background checks wouldn’t stop every maniac with a gun, it’s at least a step in the right direction in trying to prevent the kind of tragedy that we saw this week,” he added.
NRA Logo (Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg)
Larry Stewart, walking off the event, said: “I want to honor the victims, the families, the city and our friends in the great state of Texas to the best of my ability.”
Former US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will attend the National Rifle Association’s gun rights convention in Texas this week, even after a shooting that it left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Trump is scheduled to address the annual meeting of the powerful gun lobby in Houston on Friday. “America needs real solutions and real leadership right now, not politics or partisanship,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
“It’s because that I will keep my long-standing commitment to speak in Texas at the NRA Convention and deliver an important message to the United States,” Trump said.
Donald Trump will participate (REUTERS/Gaelen Morse)
According to the NRA website, the Secret Service prevents attendees from carrying firearms or firearm accessories during Trump’s speech.
Trump’s plans and words they place him in direct opposition to President Joe Biden, who said after Tuesday’s shooting that the United States must stand up to the NRA and enact meaningful gun reform legislation.
“When in God’s name are we going to do what we all know in our guts must be done?” Biden asked, his voice slow and heavy with emotion, in an address to the nation on Tuesday. at night after the shooting.
The assault in Uvalde follows a series of deadly mass shootings in the United States this month: the most recent was on May 14 when An 18-year-old self-proclaimed white supremacist fatally shot 10 people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. .
Despite recurring mass shootings, multiple initiatives to reform gun regulations have failed in the US Congress, leaving state and local governments to strengthen, or weaken, their own restrictions.
(With information from AFP)