HOUSTON. In Texas, Donald Trump, champion of the National Rifle Association (RFA), defends the right to possess weapons and announces his new candidacy for the White House. Trump’s speech at the grand gathering of the National Rifle Association began with a tribute to the “wonderful patriots” present at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston. The former president, greeted by an ovation from the audience and the choirs “Usa, Usa, Usa”, then asked for a moment of silence for the victims of the Uvalde massacre, while reading the names of the 19 children and the two teachers killed. from 18 year old Salvador Ramos. With each name, the loudspeakers rang the tolling of a bell. “A hateful massacre”, carried out by a “monster” who is the embodiment of “absolute evil”, said the former president, who invoked the search for a “common ground” to put a stop to the continuous bloodshed America, only to then immediately lash out at the “cynical politicians who try to exploit the pain of the families of the victims to deprive us of constitutional rights”.
After the massacre at a school in Texas, the NRA convention starts: in the video of the weapons lobby there are also children on a trip
Constitutional right
Like the constitutional right to freely acquire and possess weapons, the NRA mission, deployed today more than ever in defense of the Second Amendment, which for Trump is under siege ». Then, the direct attack on his successor Joe Biden, who after the massacre in Texas had pointed the finger directly at the “arms lobby”, demanding “common sense” laws to stop its reckless spread. Biden’s is “a divisive and wrong rhetoric,” said Trump, according to which the “laws of the left” would not have served to prevent massacres like that of Uvalde, the work of “disturbed young people”. According to Trump, what is needed is a change of approach to “mental illness”, towards which action must be taken after the first signs, “instead of turning away”. But, above all, according to Trump’s recipe, the security of schools must be strengthened, with armed agents and teachers, a single access with metal detectors to buildings and armored doors in the classrooms.
Ukraine
“It’s not a problem of money, but of will,” he told the applauding audience. The United States has sent billions in aid to Ukraine, while instead “we should do everything possible to protect our schools”. Then, in the midst of the usual stream of consciousness that has always characterized his political interventions, two hints of his new candidacy for the presidency. “When I am president for the second time, I will take care of eliminating evil.” And again, at the conclusion of his speech, addressed to the audience, “together we will take back the Senate and the Chamber” and then “together we will take back the White House”.
To stem the violence
Trump had been preceded by a series of speeches, opened by the CEO of the National Rifle Association, Wayne LaPierre, convinced that “denying the right of Americans to self-defense is not the answer” to massacres like that of Uvalde, the work of a ” criminal monster ‘, a manifestation of’ evil ‘. La Pierre’s recipe, his “common sense” proposal, to stem senseless violence such as that which manifested itself at Robb Elementary School and on so many other occasions is to better protect schools, banks, stadiums and government buildings. Along the same lines, Ted Cruz, the senator from Texas, who stated from the stage that for “many Americans” the need to be able to defend themselves is not an “abstract” thing, but “a question of security” and “take away their weapons. it will not make them safer, “nor will it make America” safer “. Cruz then lashed out at the “elites who dominate our culture”, opposed to the spread of weapons, with “unlimited resources” and a “huge megaphone” in the media. These people, said the Texan senator, can afford an ideology that ignores reality. “The massacre of Uvalde, he repeated several times, was the action of a” monster “and a manifestation of” evil “.
Protests
Outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, demonstrators in favor of greater gun control had gathered early in the morning. Leading the protests, Beto O’Rourke, who in November will challenge Greg Abbott for the office of governor of Texas and who already in the aftermath of the Uvalde massacre, during the first press conference of local and state authorities, had clashed hard with Abbott. “It’s your fault”, he accuses him. On Friday, O’Rourke posted a tweet throwing new accusations on his Republican rival. “We will not forget what Abbott did to the children of Texas. We will defeat him,” he wrote, also posting a video in which he remembers the signing, by the current governor, of the controversial law that allows the purchase and bear of weapons freely. without the need for checks, permits or adequate training. And for Abbott the embarrassment is evident, confirmed by the decision to renounce to participate in the presence of the NRA convention, as had instead been announced, simply by sending a pre-recorded video message, in which he defended himself, stating that the Uvalde massacre did not it is a consequence of the deregulation in force in Texas.
Laws
There have already been laws that “have not stopped the madmen”, remarked the governor, who later in a press conference in Uvalde said he had been “misled” and felt “furious” at the “inaccurate” information received from the police. with regard to the investigation into the massacre, from which emerges a failed response from the police. Meanwhile, while Washington is pursuing a difficult, if not impossible, bipartisan compromise for a federal law that imposes limits on the spread of firearms, controversy rages across the country over the unsuccessful action of the Uvalde police. During a dramatic press conference, Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Security, had to admit the delays and “bad decisions” he made on the day of the massacre. According to the latest reconstruction, it is now confirmed that, while the children were still under fire by Salvador Ramos and called the police with their cell phones, outside the school the special teams were kept on standby, instead of breaking into the classroom. where the young victims were.