Source: Politics<\/p>\n
HOUSTON \u2014 The protesters who raised their middle fingers and shouted \u201cshame\u201d outside the National Rifle Association\u2019s big gathering here on Friday had assumed \u2014 like much of official Washington \u2014 that the timing of a school shooting three days earlier might somehow be problematic for the NRA.<\/p>\n
For gun enthusiasts and the Republican politicians courting them, it was only more reason to come.<\/p>\n
Here, amid acres of guns and tactical gear inside a cavernous convention hall, the proximate cause of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was not a rifle, but mental illness, shadowy forces of evil or, as one man in a \u201cLet\u2019s Go Brandon\u201d T-shirt put it, the \u201cdestruction of our children\u201d by the teachings of the left.<\/p>\n
In Uvalde, a makeshift memorial of white wooden crosses had gone up for the 19 children and two adults slain. But at the NRA meeting in Houston, less than 300 miles away, the shooting had been reduced to a sling stone in the broader culture wars. The slaughter, it was universally agreed, was a tragedy. But gun owners saw themselves as set upon, too.<\/p>\n
The Second Amendment, former President Donald Trump said, was \u201ctotally under siege.\u201d Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said the \u201creal goal\u201d of many politicians on the left \u201cis disarming America.\u201d Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota who, like Cruz, may run for president in 2024, warned, \u201cNow is not the time to cave to the woke culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a gun control problem. It\u2019s a demon control problem,\u201d said Joe Chambers, who had traveled to the conference from Porter, Texas.<\/p>\n
His wife, Ana, gestured to the TV cameras and demonstrators outside: \u201cThis is all propaganda,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019ll use anything to make us look bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, as the NRA opened its Memorial Day weekend conference, Trump said that if he runs for president again in 2024 and wins, he will adopt a more militaristic approach to public safety, pledging to \u201ccrack down on violent crime like never before.\u201d<\/p>\n
But beyond that, the reaction by Republicans and the gun lobby to Uvalde followed traditional lines. They called for more spending on school security measures and mental health, while pointing to gun violence in heavily populated, liberal cities. In interview after interview, conference-goers volunteered the federal government\u2019s $40 billion aid package to Ukraine as evidence that the government could afford to spend money hardening schools.<\/p>\n
Some, including at least one gun seller, said they could support enacting additional, though limited, gun restrictions. But they were no more prevalent than the conference attendees who were entertaining conspiracy theories, uncertain whether the left was setting them up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy did it happen three days ago?\u201d asked Jim Hollis, a lifetime NRA benefactor from St. Louis. \u201cI\u2019m not sure that there are not forces someplace that somehow find troubled people and nurture and develop them and push them for their own agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hollis, who asserted the shooter in Uvalde \u201ccould have walked in there with a baseball bat and possibly killed as many kids,\u201d feared the \u201cthe attack on gun rights\u201d was \u201cstrengthening\u201d after Uvalde.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people who thought they could use this Uvalde situation to dampen this [meeting],\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Said another man, who declined to give his name, at the conference: \u201cIt\u2019s straight out of a playbook.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NRA meeting was not unaffected by the shooting. Several musicians who had planned to perform at the event \u2014 and whose audiences are broader than a GOP primary electorate \u2014 did cancel on the NRA. Larry Gatlin, of the Gatlin Brothers, told CNN<\/a> he \u201cdidn\u2019t think it was a good time to go down to Houston and have a party.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, who had been scheduled to speak at the conference, elected to return to Uvalde<\/a> instead, though he recorded a video message for the NRA. Daniel Defense, the company that made the gun used in Uvalde \u2014 and which posted an image on social media of a small child holding a gun<\/a> prior to the mass shooting \u2014 pulled out<\/a>.<\/p>\n But there’s a reason that Trump, Cruz and Noem, among others, were all on hand.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a politician with a long-term vision, these are opportunities to stand up for the Second Amendment when it\u2019s not easy to do, which could prove useful for a politician, perhaps not in today\u2019s news cycle, but down the road,\u201d said John Thomas, a Republican strategist works on House campaigns across the country.<\/p>\n He said he could envision cutting an ad featuring a Republican\u2019s remarks at the conference: \u201cWhen times were tough, and the weaker RINOs and liberals wanted to take your guns, you know, such and such stood up for your right to protect yourself and your family.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s that political incentive that explains why, for many Republicans, attendance at the NRA convention was not problematic at all \u2014 and also why passage of gun restrictions remains so unlikely. Nationally \u2014 and even in heavily Republican Texas \u2014 public polling reflects broad support for stricter gun measures<\/a>. But in recent years, Texas lawmakers have loosened gun laws, not made them more restrictive<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can look at the public opinion data and see, yes, there are Republicans who will support things like background checks and \u2018red flag laws,\u2019\u201d said James Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin, which has polled regularly on the issue<\/a>. \u201cBut the political debate appeals to other impulses that are also evident in public opinion that suggest it is very easy to present Republican voters with slippery slope-type arguments that hinge on negative partisanship and switch the frame of the debate.\u201d<\/p>\n Henson said, \u201cSo the debate isn\u2019t about are there reasonable compromises here that might reduce the possibility of events like this,\u201d but rather the GOP\u2019s capitalization on a politically salient message that \u201cDemocrats want to take away your guns and are fundamentally against the Constitution and are enemies of Second Amendment rights and therefore rights in general.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s precisely the case that Trump made on Friday, when he derided calls for stricter gun measures as a first step to \u201ctotal gun confiscation.\u201d<\/p>\n After he finished speaking, as conference-goers left the hall, they were met on the sidewalk by demonstrators who demanded to know if there were any additional gun restrictions they could agree to.<\/p>\n For the most part, the answer was \u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese people, year after year, tragedy after tragedy, it\u2019s the same damn thing over and over again,\u201d said Roland Gutierrez, a Democratic state senator whose district includes Uvalde. \u201cI sometimes think these guys just double down on their madness \u2026 rallying up their base of constituents that believe that even mentioning guns is infringing on their Second Amendment rights.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s mental health and the devil,\u201d he said, in reference to the explanations of gun rights supporters. \u201cAnd it\u2019s unacceptable \u2026 It\u2019s unconscionable.\u201d<\/p>\n Nancy Vu contributed to this report.<\/p>\n