Dallas is home to this year’s National Rifle Association’s annual convention. Since 2012, the city arranged to be the host to the meeting in exchange for the revenue brought in by the attendees. But this could all change as one city council member and mayor pro tem is urging the NRA to take its convention elsewhere.
After the country’s tragic number of mass shootings in recent months with the most recently taking place in Parkland, Florida last week where 17 people were killed, Dwaine Caraway is asking the NRA to find another place to host this year’s annual convention, which is scheduled to take place May 4-6, as well as urging members to take a stand on the issue.
“It is a tough call when you ask the NRA to reconsider coming to Dallas,” Caraway said. “But it is putting all citizens first and getting [the NRA] to come to the table and elected officials to come to the table, and to address this madness now.”
There are huge protests already planned in Dallas if the NRA goes forth with the convention. The NRA, which “aggressively marketed” the AR-15 as “America’s most popular rifle,” will “permit the sale of ammunition at its convention,” according to Common Dreams.
But instead of selling ammunition and assault weapons, which is the weapon of choice in many of the country’s mass shootings, Caraway is asking the NRA to “show leadership” in the wake of such tragic events.
“Yes, mental illness is an issue, but it’s not just an issue that should only be associated with guns,” Caraway said. “At the end of the day, we need to connect the dots. The NRA needs to step up to the plate and show leadership. Elected officials are receiving dollars from the NRA, and they’re afraid to set policy and to set necessary gun rules.”
Gun lobbying groups keep “insisting that greater presence of firearms through concealed carry legislation would make Americans safer, and that a stronger mental health treatment system would reduce mass shootings,” according to Common Dreams.
But Caraway believes a ban on military-style, semi-automatic weapons is necessary to curb mass shootings.
“Who needs an AR-15 to go hunting? Who needs an AR-15 to protect their house?” he said.
While Caraway is asking the NRA to take its annual convention elsewhere, Dallas’s city attorney is also examining whether the convention can be canceled altogether.
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