Protesters angered over the shooting deaths of Texas elementary school students, converged Friday (May 27) outside the gun-lobby National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Houston.
The protesters held signs, red splattered clothing and shouted, “NRA go away,” as hundreds of members of the nation’s biggest gun lobby arrived at the conventional hall.
Tuesday’s fatal shooting of 19 Uvalde, Texas, students and two teachers by an 18-year-old gunman equipped with an AR-15 style semiautomatic assault rife is expected to limit attendance at the group’s first convention in three years.
Inside the massive convention center in downtown Houston, attendees shopped for NRA-themed T-shirts and caps, whose sales help finance the group’s programs. The hall had hundreds of exhibits by gun manufacturers, showing off handguns, hunting rifles and assault rifles.
The weekend convention is the five million-member group’s first annual get together after two prior cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Production: Matt McKnight, Gerardo Gomez)