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A student at the March for Our Lives last month. (Photo: mathiaswasik/Flickr/cc)
Students Unload on Hypocrisy of NRA Announcing Gun-Free Zone at Upcoming Convention
"If only American schoolchildren could be given the same protection from gun violence these hypocrites demand for themselves."
Apr 30, 2018
The student leaders of the #NeverAgain anti-gun violence movement were quick to point out the glaring hypocrisy on display Monday as the National Rifle Association (NRA) announced that firearms would not be permitted at its annual meeting in Dallas when President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are speaking.
Cameron Kasky, a student from Parkland, Florida and co-founder of the March for Our Lives campaign, called out the NRA for becoming "such a hilarious parody of itself."
The NRA has been the target of ire in recent months as the #NeverAgain movement has gained traction, calling attention to the powerful lobbying group's donations to lawmakers and efforts to defeat even very popular gun control reform proposals, like the expansion of background checks.
At the group's annual gathering, the Secret Service will oversee security during the president and vice president's appearances, banning guns as they do at any event where Trump and Pence are present. But the firearm ban was taken by many gun control advocates as a tacit admission that a "good guy with a gun" would not in fact be capable of stopping an attack should one occur--contrary to what the NRA has insisted for years.
Students and their supporters called on the Trump administration and the NRA to offer the same protection to the American public as they do to the president.
The convention is being held in early May, less than three months after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which drove students, parents, and teachers across the country to action as they called for gun control reforms. Thousands of students attended school walkouts in March and April, and more than 200,000 Americans demonstrated in Washington in the March for Our Lives.
Since the Parkland shooting, at least 17 shootings have taken place at schools in the U.S. According to the Washington Post, nearly 230 people have been fatally shot by the police since Parkland--an aspect of the country's gun violence epidemic that student activists should not be overlooked.
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The student leaders of the #NeverAgain anti-gun violence movement were quick to point out the glaring hypocrisy on display Monday as the National Rifle Association (NRA) announced that firearms would not be permitted at its annual meeting in Dallas when President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are speaking.
Cameron Kasky, a student from Parkland, Florida and co-founder of the March for Our Lives campaign, called out the NRA for becoming "such a hilarious parody of itself."
The NRA has been the target of ire in recent months as the #NeverAgain movement has gained traction, calling attention to the powerful lobbying group's donations to lawmakers and efforts to defeat even very popular gun control reform proposals, like the expansion of background checks.
At the group's annual gathering, the Secret Service will oversee security during the president and vice president's appearances, banning guns as they do at any event where Trump and Pence are present. But the firearm ban was taken by many gun control advocates as a tacit admission that a "good guy with a gun" would not in fact be capable of stopping an attack should one occur--contrary to what the NRA has insisted for years.
Students and their supporters called on the Trump administration and the NRA to offer the same protection to the American public as they do to the president.
The convention is being held in early May, less than three months after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which drove students, parents, and teachers across the country to action as they called for gun control reforms. Thousands of students attended school walkouts in March and April, and more than 200,000 Americans demonstrated in Washington in the March for Our Lives.
Since the Parkland shooting, at least 17 shootings have taken place at schools in the U.S. According to the Washington Post, nearly 230 people have been fatally shot by the police since Parkland--an aspect of the country's gun violence epidemic that student activists should not be overlooked.
The student leaders of the #NeverAgain anti-gun violence movement were quick to point out the glaring hypocrisy on display Monday as the National Rifle Association (NRA) announced that firearms would not be permitted at its annual meeting in Dallas when President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are speaking.
Cameron Kasky, a student from Parkland, Florida and co-founder of the March for Our Lives campaign, called out the NRA for becoming "such a hilarious parody of itself."
The NRA has been the target of ire in recent months as the #NeverAgain movement has gained traction, calling attention to the powerful lobbying group's donations to lawmakers and efforts to defeat even very popular gun control reform proposals, like the expansion of background checks.
At the group's annual gathering, the Secret Service will oversee security during the president and vice president's appearances, banning guns as they do at any event where Trump and Pence are present. But the firearm ban was taken by many gun control advocates as a tacit admission that a "good guy with a gun" would not in fact be capable of stopping an attack should one occur--contrary to what the NRA has insisted for years.
Students and their supporters called on the Trump administration and the NRA to offer the same protection to the American public as they do to the president.
The convention is being held in early May, less than three months after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., which drove students, parents, and teachers across the country to action as they called for gun control reforms. Thousands of students attended school walkouts in March and April, and more than 200,000 Americans demonstrated in Washington in the March for Our Lives.
Since the Parkland shooting, at least 17 shootings have taken place at schools in the U.S. According to the Washington Post, nearly 230 people have been fatally shot by the police since Parkland--an aspect of the country's gun violence epidemic that student activists should not be overlooked.
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