Dallas: US President Donald Trump rallied gun owners in Texas on Friday, summarily rejecting calls for stricter laws despite a high school massacre in Florida that fuelled public demands for change. Making a pilgrimage to the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas, Trump tackled head-on the controversy over his visit, which comes three months after a classroom bloodbath that shocked the world. Political advisers, he said, had told him not to go, to which he responded “bye, bye, got to get on a plane,” prompting extended cheers.
“We have to do the right thing,” he said. It is the second year running that Trump has addressed the gun-toting, hat-waving jamboree, but the first time since the school massacre in Parkland, Florida. Trump made only brief allusion to the February 14 high school rampage in Parkland, signalling a return to politics as normal, as his Republicans head into sharply contested mid-term elections. “Our hearts break for every American who has suffered,” Trump said, while dismissing calls for curbs on civilians’ ability to buy semi-automatic weapons.
“It’s not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference,” he said. “In America we trust the people to be wise and to be good.” Vice-President Mike Pence, went as far as to say there was too much coverage of the sorrow of mass shootings and not enough of “good guys” with guns. — AFP
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