Days after the deadly shooting in Uvalde, Texas, governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz and former President Donald Trump will attend a pro-gun rights lobby meeting of the National Rifle Association (NRA). The shooting in Texas on Tuesday killed at least 21 people.

Other top Republican lawmakers are also scheduled to attend the meeting. These include Representative Dan Crenshaw, South Dakota governor Kristi Noem and North Carolina Lt governor Mark Robinson.

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The meeting, which will be conducted in Houston, will also reflect on the recent shooting. “We will reflect on these events, pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure”, the NRA said in a statement.

The Donald Trump irony

NRA has historically been an organisation that backs the Second Amendment and advocates gun rights, a principle that will be absent during Trump’s address this weekend. 

Those attending the event will not be permitted to carry any firearms, or other weapons, inside the auditorium where Trump is scheduled to speak. According to a statement from the NRA, officials from the Secret Service will take control of the room.

The former President said that he will “deliver an important address to America” on Friday in Houston. “America needs real solutions and real leadership at this moment, not politicians and partisanship”, he wrote on his own social media platform.

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Democrats vs Republicans on gun violence

Despite mounting mass shootings in communities nationwide — two in the past two weeks alone, including Tuesday in Texas and the racist killing of Black shoppers at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket 10 days earlier — lawmakers have been unwilling to set aside their differences and abandon the gun lobby to work out any compromise.

Chuck Schumer, a Democrat and the Senate majority leader, lashed out earlier this week during a legislative session. He even targetted the NRA. “If the slaughter of schoolchildren can’t convince Republicans to buck the NRA, what can we do?”, Schumer asked his fellow lawmakers.