Protesters holding signs and crosses with photos of victims from the Texas primary school shooting rallied outside the National Rifle Association's (NRA) annual convention in Houston, as former United States president Donald Trump addressed attendees.
Attendance was dampened and speakers and featured musical acts stayed away as about 500 protesters, some shouting "NRA go away" and "Shame, it could be your kids today", jeered attendees outside the George R. Brown Convention Center.
Tuesday's fatal shooting of 19 pupils and two teachers at a primary school in Uvalde, Texas, by an 18-year-old gunman equipped with an AR-15 style semiautomatic rifle again focused attention on the NRA, the nation's biggest gun lobby and a major donor to Congress members, mostly Republicans.
Uvalde is about 450km west of Houston.
Video of the main auditorium in Houston, which holds about 3,600 people, showed it to be about half-full as Mr Trump took the stage late Friday afternoon.
"The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens," Mr Trump told the audience to cheers, echoing speakers who rejected background checks or bans on semi-automatic weapons.
South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, a Republican, urged attendees not to back down in their fight against gun control.
"Now would be the worst time to quit. Now is when we double down," she said.
Protestors outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston Friday where the NRA Convention was held. Source: Getty / Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times
Mr Patrick said he withdrew so as not to "bring any additional pain or grief to the families and all the suffering in Uvalde".
Retired law enforcement officer Rick Gammon, who was at the convention, said any efforts to take firearms from Americans are doomed to fail.
"You'll never take people's guns away. This is not Australia," Mr Gammon said.
After the April 1996 Port Arthur massacre of 35 people, Australia enacted tougher new gun laws including a general ban on the use of semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and pump-action shotguns except for specific purposes.
America — plagued by far more frequent gun violence, but with the right to bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution — has repeatedly failed to take action after mass shootings.
"I'd love to see universal background checks," says Mr Gammon, referring to a long-sought reform that has majority support in the United States. "But it's not going to stop someone hell-bent on crime."
The headliners at a weekend concert - Don McLean, Larry Gatlin and Lee Greenwood - cancelled their appearances. Mr Gatlin issued a statement supporting background checks, calling it a "step in the right direction".
United States Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said in a speech to the meeting communities needed weapons to stay safe.
"Taking away guns will not make them safer," he said.
The NRA's decision to proceed with its largest annual gathering is part of a decades-long strategy of standing up to pressure for gun control that dates to the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in Colorado.
Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive director, addressed the school killings but said gun owners "love our nation, love our children and grandchildren. That's why we will always cherish and protect our fundamental right to defend ourselves and our communities."
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union, rejected suggestions teachers be armed to thwart future shootings.
"More guns equal more violence," she said. "Assault weapons should be banned."
Texas Governor Greg Abbott pulled out of the NRA event, but delivered a pre-recorded video message where he said existing gun laws did not stop the Uvalde shooter and pushed back at calls for new legislation. Source: Getty / Brandon Bell
"They have the audacity not to cancel in respect of these families," said Mata, who represented advocacy group Greater Houston Coalition for Justice.
The NRA should "quit being a part of the assassination of children in American schools", he said.
Tim Hickey, a Marine Corps veteran attending the event, dismissed the protests.
"These people are puppets and sheep to the media," he said. "They are not changing anyone's mind."
The weekend convention was the five million-member group's first annual get together since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Posters celebrating its 150th anniversary hung over the exhibition hall.
In a pre-recorded video, Mr Abbott said, "as Texans and as Americans we grieve and mourn with these families".
But he said existing gun laws did not stop the Uvalde shooter and pushed back at calls for new legislation, saying "laws will not stop evil madmen from committing these atrocities".
School shooting survivor smeared blood on her face to hide from culprit
An 11-year-old survivor of the horrific school shooting smeared herself with the blood of a dead classmate in a bid to hide from the gunman.
Miah Cerrillo, who has been left too terrified to speak to men, told CNN she and a friend used a dead teacher's cellphone to call for help as the 18-year-old shooter gunned down students and teachers at her school in rural Texas.
The testimony is the first to emerge from inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where Salvador Ramos murdered 19 young children and two teachers in one of the worst mass shootings to strike violence-weary America.
The child, whose hair has begun to fall out in clumps since the massacre, told how Mr Ramos had made eye contact with one teacher as he pushed his way into her classroom.
He then said "Goodnight" and shot the teacher dead, before opening fire with his semi-automatic rifle at the other member of staff and many of Miah's classmates.
Mr Ramos went into another classroom where terrified children screamed as he shot them, before starting to play loud, sad music, Miah told the network in an off-camera interview.
She and a friend scrabbled for their dead teacher's cellphone and made an urgent plea to 911 operators: "Please come... we're in trouble."
Miah, who was treated for injuries to her head and shoulders, was so scared the teenage gunman would return that she dipped her hands in the blood of a dead friend and smeared it on herself, lying there for what felt like hours until help finally came
Police made 'wrong decision' waiting for backup
Police made the "wrong decision" in waiting nearly an hour for additional officers before breaching the classroom where the shooter carried out his massacre, a law enforcement official said.
Survivors, including children, were calling the 911 emergency number from the classroom long after a shooter had entered a primary school in Texas with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle on Tuesday.
But police officers were in the hallway outside the room waiting for more assistance, according to Colonel Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.
A member of the National Rifle Association plugs his ears with his fingers as he walks past protesters during the NRA's annual meeting in Houston. Source: AAP / AP / Jae C. Hong
According to Colonel McCraw, a person called 911 multiple times starting at 12:03pm, telling police in a whisper that there were multiple dead and that there were still "eight to nine" students alive, the colonel said.
A student called at 12:47pm and asked the operator to send police "now".
Officers did not go into the classroom until 12:50pm, according to Colonel McCraw, when a US Border Patrol tactical team used keys from a janitor to open the locked door and kill the shooter, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos.
Republicans block attempt to spark gun debate
A first attempt by Democrats to respond to the back-to-back mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, has failed in the United States Senate.
Republicans blocked a domestic terrorism bill that would have opened debate on hate crimes and gun safety.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer tried to nudge Republicans into taking up a domestic terrorism bill that had cleared the House quickly last week after mass shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo and a church in Southern California targeting people of colour. He said it could become the basis for negotiation.
But the vote on Thursday failed along party lines, raising fresh doubts about the possibility of compromise on gun safety measures.
"We're disappointed," said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
She said it's "shameful" that the National Rifle Association and others have stood in the way of advancing such measures.
"The president has been very clear that's it's time to act," she said.
Rejection of the bill, just two days after brought into sharp relief the persistent failure of Congress to pass legislation to curb the nation's epidemic of gun violence.
Mr Schumer said he will give bipartisan negotiations in the Senate about two weeks to try to forge a compromise bill.
A small, bipartisan group of about 10 senators who have sought to negotiate legislation on guns met Thursday afternoon for the second time.
They narrowed to three topics — background checks for guns purchased online or at gun shows, red-flag laws designed to keep guns away from those who could harm themselves or others, and programs to bolster security at schools and other buildings.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said he had met with Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas and encouraged senators to collaborate across the aisle on workable outcomes. Source: AAP, SIPA USA / CQ-Roll Call
But Mr Graham said there could be interest in providing money to the states that already have red flag laws or that want to develop them. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who circulated a draft at the meeting, will work with Graham on a potential compromise.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who has said little about gun legislation since the several tragedies have unfolded, told reporters he met with Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas earlier and encouraged senators to collaborate across the aisle on workable outcomes.
"I am hopeful that we could come up with a bipartisan solution that's directly related to the facts of this awful massacre," Mr McConnell said.
- With AFP
