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Pro-gun NRA meets in US state where school shooting killed 21

A woman lights a candle at a makeshift memorial outside Uvalde County Courthouse in Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday.
A woman lights a candle at a makeshift memorial outside Uvalde County Courthouse in Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday.
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UVALDE: US gun lobby group the National Rifle Association (NRA) was to hold its annual convention in Texas late on Friday, days after a horrific school shooting in the state killed 19 children and two teachers.


The meeting is being held in Houston, a few hours drive east of the elementary school in the small town of Uvalde where an 18-year-old gunman used an assault rifle to carry out the massacre on Tuesday.


Former US president Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that he would attend the NRA meeting, saying that the United States "needs real solutions and real leadership in this time, not politicians and partisan considerations."


In a statement on its website, the NRA -- which has been instrumental in preventing the passage of stricter firearms regulations -- said the mass murder in Uvalde was "the act of a lone, deranged criminal."


On Thursday, Texas police faced angry questions over why it took an hour to neutralise the gunman, as video emerged of desperate parents begging officers to storm the school.


In one jolty, nearly seven-minute clip posted on YouTube, parents are seen screaming expletives at police trying to keep them away from Robb Elementary School.


"It's my daughter!" one woman bellows in chaotic scenes of crying and shoving.


Angeli Rose Gomez, whose children were inside, told The Wall Street Journal she was handcuffed by federal marshals after she and others pushed police to intervene.


In another video, parents at what is apparently the rear of the building complain angrily that police are doing nothing as the country's worst school shooting in a decade unfolds.


One woman, frantic about her son, yells to police: "If they've got a shot, shoot him or something. Go on."


Jacinto Cazares, whose daughter Jacklyn died on Tuesday, said he raced to the school when he heard about the shooting.


"There was at least 40 lawmen armed to the teeth but didn't do a darn thing (until) it was far too late," Cazares told ABC News on Wednesday.


Daniel Myers and his wife Matilda -- both local pastors -- told AFP they saw parents at the scene growing frantic as police seemed to wait on reinforcements before entering the school.


"Parents were desperate," said Daniel Myers, 72. "One family member, he says: 'I was in the military, just give me a gun, I'll go in. I'm not going to hesitate. I'll go in.'"


The tight-knit Latino community was changed forever when Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old with a history of being bullied, entered the school and gunned down students and teachers with an assault rifle.


Relatives said the husband of one of the teachers killed in the attack died on Thursday from a medical emergency -- caused by grief over the loss of his wife. The couple had four children.


Facing rapid-fire questioning by journalists on the police response, Victor Escalon of the Texas Department of Public Safety said investigators were still working to piece together exactly what happened.


After shooting his own grandmother, Ramos crashed her vehicle near the school, Escalon said, then fired on bystanders before entering the school through a door that was apparently unlocked.


Officers went in minutes later, but were held back by gunfire and called for backup. A tactical team including US Border Patrol agents entered and killed the gunman "approximately an hour later."


In the interim, officers evacuated students and teachers and unsuccessfully tried to negotiate with the gunman, who held them back with rifle fire, Escalon said. - AFP


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