Uvalde school massacre gunmaker not to attend NRA convention
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After the United States suffered yet another massacre due to incredibly loose gun laws, the manufacturer of the gun used in the Texas school massacre will not attend the NRA convention.
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This photo was posted on the Daniel Defense Twitter account May 16 with the caption "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it"
The US automatic rifles maker Daniel Defense, which made one of the firearms used in the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Texas, announced on Friday that it would not attend the regular National Rifle Association (NRA) convention.
"Daniel Defense is not attending the NRA meeting due to the horrifying tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, where one of our products was criminally misused," marketing Vice President Steve Reed said in a statement.
"We believe this week is not the appropriate time to be promoting our products in Texas at the NRA meeting," he added.
An 18-year-old boy carried out a mass shooting that claimed the lives of at least 21 people at an elementary school in Texas. He used two weapons, which include an AR15-style automatic rifle manufactured by Daniel Defense.
Investigators found one of the suspect's Daniel Defense-manufactured AR15-style rifles in the school, US media quoted Texas Senator John Whitmire as saying after he was briefed on the killings by law enforcement officials.
The NRA is set to hold its annual national convention in Houston on Friday. It is the first meeting of the sort in three years, as the previous ones had been canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is set to be attended by prominent Republican figures, including former US President Donald Trump.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday a US federal court is backing up legislation in New York that allows for suits to be filed against gunmakers for their roles in shootings.
"In a major victory, a federal court affirmed my office's right to hold gun manufacturers accountable for the devastation caused by guns," James said via Twitter.
"New York has a right to protect our residents and go after companies that cause us harm," she added, stressing the importance of using every tool they had to end gun violence and stand up to the "powerful forces," she said were to blame for "these weapons of death and destruction."
The decision came after the Uvalde massacre and another that claimed the lives of ten in a New York supermarket, which was carried out by a white supremacist.
The latter massacre was labeled a hate crime due to the fact that 11 out of 13 of Grendon's victims were black and varied between shoppers and employees, and the crime in its entirety was live-streamed on Twitch.
