SandyMaloneDallas, TX – The National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual conference is scheduled for the first week of May in Dallas, but one lawmaker has promised opposition if the pro-gun group continued with its plans.
“I am saying to the NRA, reconsider coming to Dallas. There will be marches and demonstrations should they come to Dallas,” Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway said, according to WFAA.
KDFW reported that Caraway claimed to be a second amendment supporter, who said he personally owns five guns. But he said he believed the NRA should be working with local jurisdictions on tougher gun laws.
“It is time for them to stand up and it’s time for us to listen and it’s time for Mr. Trump and every elected official in Washington and USA on every level to stand up and speak out against this type of violence,” Caraway said.
He used John F. Kennedy’s murder, the Florida school shooting, and the July 2016 murder of five police officers in Dallas as reasons the NRA convention should not be held in Dallas.
“No politician anywhere can tell the NRA not to come to their city,” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam told WFAA.
“We are already there. Dallas, like every American city and community, is populated by NRA members. Our members work in fire stations and police departments. They save lives in local hospitals and own businesses in communities urban and rural throughout this country,” Arulanandam said.
WFAA reported that none of the other members of the city council they interviewed wanted the NRA to cancel its planned convention, which was expected to bring 80,000 NRA members and generate $40 million in revenue for the city.
Caraway said Dallas doesn’t need the revenue, WFAA reported. He also said he wasn’t speaking for the Dallas City Council, and that he was making a personal appeal to the NRA to change their plans, KDFW reported.
Dallas City Councilmember Jennifer Staubach Gates said the gun organization has every right to hold their event at the Dallas Convention Center.
“They’re constitutionally protected to be in the convention center,” Staubach Gates said. “It’s a public building. We can’t be in the business to censor who uses that building.”