Former US President Donald Trump appeared this Friday as a star at the annual convention of the National Rifle Association (NRA, in English), where he made a strong defense of weapons, just three days after the shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers in a school in Uvalde (Texas).
Trump stuck to the Republican script by attributing the massacre to the mental health of the attacker, an 18-year-old named Salvador Ramos, and lashed out at "the grotesque efforts" of the Democrats for greater control in the purchase of arms.
"Gun control policies pushed by the left would have done nothing to prevent the horror that took place. Absolutely nothing"affirmed the former president when speaking at the convention center in Houston, Texas, the same state where the massacre occurred.
The recipe of the Republican, applauded several times, is to install metal detectors at the entrances of schools and reinforce the armor of the doors, but in no case limit access to weapons because, he said, "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun".
BLAME THE "EVIL" OF THE ATTACKER
Tuesday’s massacre, the deadliest at a school since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre that left 28 dead, has reignited America’s perennial gun debate.
A discussion that always comes up against the same thing: the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which enshrines the right of Americans to own weapons, and the narrow majorities in Congress.
The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has called for "plant face" to the gun lobby, and the Democrats want to push through background check laws for gun buyers, but for the Republicans the problem is mental health and school safety.
Trump, who read out the names of the 21 victims to the sound of bells chiming in the background, took direct aim at the attacker: "the monster that committed this crime is pure evil, pure cruelty, pure hate"he expressed.
And he considered that in no case can one blame "the wonderful NRA" for these crimes.
"Every time a disturbed or insane person commits such a horrible crime, there is always a grotesque effort by some to use the suffering to further their extremist political agenda."criticized the president before an auditorium where, paradoxically, access with weapons was prohibited.
PROTESTS AT THE DOOR
Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered outside the Houston Convention Center to protest the NRA conference, which kept the event going despite numerous calls to cancel it after the massacre.
The participants in the protest came equipped with posters with messages such as "Ban Assault Rifles Now", "When will you love your children more than guns?" Y "Assault rifles are for murder".
In addition to Trump, other Republican figures paraded the stage, such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who in recent days has blamed poor security at school gates for the massacre.
The one who did give in, in part, to the pressure was the governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, who canceled his in-person participation in the convention to offer a press conference in Uvalde.
However, the president of Texas, one of the most lax states in the purchase of weapons, defended firearms from the scene of the tragedy and considered that it would be "wrong" oblige to check the criminal record of arms buyers.
Even so, he did not avoid Trump’s rebuke for his absence from the convention: "I am honored to be here in the great state of Texas with the wonderful patriots of the NRA. And unlike some, I didn’t disappoint them by not showing up."declared the former president during his speech.