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Politics
Greg Evans
May 28, 2022
Former President Donald Trump speaks at NRA Convention in Houston
Indy
Donald Trump has angered people after he read out the names of all the victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston, Texas on Friday.
The controversial pro-gun rally still went ahead this week, just days after 21 people, including 19 children were killed by a mass shooter identified as18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered the school in Uvalde with an AR-15 rifle which he had just purchased.
As huge waves of protesters amassed outside the building, inside former president Trump continued to tout the belief that guns aren't the problem in the United States, the only country that continues to experience these atrocities on an almost monthly basis.
Instead, Trump blamed the mass shootings on "evil" saying: "The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens. The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens."
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Trump also tried to blame the Democrats for exploiting tragic situations such as this stating: "Every time a disturbed or demented person commits a hideous crime there is always a grotesque effort by some in our society to advance their own extreme political agenda."
This was after he had read out all the names of the victims complete with a bell toll, an act which left many people feeling sick, especially after doing it in front of an audience of gun enthusiasts.
\u201cThis is the most demented thing I\u2019ve ever seen. They did a \u2018Hunger Games\u2019 bell????\u201d— Jay Willis (@Jay Willis) 1653701257
\u201cThis is just disturbed stuff\u201d— Tim Soutphommasane (@Tim Soutphommasane) 1653693685
\u201cThis is grotesque. School mass shooting used for crass Trump reality tv-style programming at an NRA convention in Texas.\u201d— Nick Bryant (@Nick Bryant) 1653694797
\u201cI don\u2019t think it gets any more dystopian than Trump reading out the names of murdered children with giant \u201cNRA\u201d signs behind him\u201d— Robyn Urback (@Robyn Urback) 1653692693
\u201cDoing this at the NRA convention with \u201cNRA\u201d behind him in giant letters is as ghoulish as it gets. Feels more like claiming victims than honoring them.\u201d— Justin Kanew (@Justin Kanew) 1653690501
\u201cThis is too twisted.\u201d— southpaw (@southpaw) 1653692910
After this, Trump also marked the two-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd by once again blaming Democrats for stoking "mass riots over a single police-involved killing."
\u201cMinutes after dismissing the murder of 19 children as a politically blameless tragedy with no possible policy implications, Trump blames Democrats for two outlier bail reform cases. Impressive levels of hypocrisy even from him.\u201d— Nick Wing (@Nick Wing) 1653690612
The reaction to Tuesday's shooting has been strongly felt in America, with the likes of Texas senator Ted Cruz and Texas governor Greg Abbott both being publically heckled over their inaction to do anything about gun violence.
This was the first time the NRA had held a public meeting in two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as being faced with financial and legal issues.
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