This week, the National Rifle Association
held its annual convention in Houston, Texas.
I sent Amy Hoggart to see if those gun nuts were going
to let last week's tragedy put a damper on the most
high caliber party of the year.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
AMY HOGGART: After the horrible mass shootings in Buffalo
and Texas and now Tulsa, it seems the entire nation
wants stricter gun regulations.
Unfortunately, one group stands in our way, the NRA.
So I'm at the annual NRA convention being held just
three days after and only miles away
from the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas
to see how the NRA is reflecting on their role in this tragedy.
It's really happy inside. [UPBEAT MUSIC]
It's kind of like a little party.
It's pretty sweet.
This is kind of like a family reunion.
Yeah, everybody's in good mood.
Right.
We're happy, happy.
AMY HOGGART: But it can't be just a happy, happy family
reunion, right?
[UPBEAT MUSIC STOPS]
They must feel something for the actual families
of the 21 murdered children and teachers
that will never be reunited.
I think everyone is extremely upset about the timing.
It was incredibly, incredibly awkward,
I mean, during an election week and then
also right before the NRA.
It's horrible.
Yeah, I'm so sorry about the timing.
I think the timing is awfully convenient.
And for what?
For the left, absolutely.
Could he not have waited another week
till after the NRA convention?
That's what I can't understand.
Right.
AMY HOGGART: Yes, the timing is super awkward for the NRA,
and they want us to know that they
were the real victims here.
This is devastating to see us get blamed
when we are not to blame.
The President of the United States went on national TV
and blamed us.
Are you upset at the lives lost
or are you upset that people are blaming
your community, the NRA?
The totality of the circumstances.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
AMY HOGGART (VOICEOVER): Right, but perhaps
people blame the NRA because they spent millions of dollars
lobbying politicians to make the guns used in Uvalde and Buffalo
as accessible as possible, and the NRA members saw no irony
in parting with their favorite politicians
while also saying it was too soon to make
these tragedies political.
I don't want to get political.
OK, when is a good time to make it political?
- Two weeks-- - Two weeks.
--a month.
So it's sometime in June?
Yeah, I would agree with that.
Right, when is the right time?
Can we get a date?
Uh, I would say the 2024 election
cycle would be a great time to talk about this.
So in two years we can talk about the shooting this week?
What about Parkland?
Is it, is it the right time to talk about Parkland?
It's-- I can't.
I don't want to talk about mass shootings right now--
Is it to soon?
--because It's too soon.
What about Sandy Hook?
Is it too soon now to talk about Sandy Hook?
We're not going to talk about it today.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
AMY HOGGART: These mass shootings
that are too soon to talk about have one thing in common,
AR-15s, a gun originally designed for war
that fires one round a second and the NRA
calls the musket of its era.
This gun was unbanned in 2004 as a direct result of the NRA,
and you can see the rise in mass shootings that followed.
But for the NRA members, guns are not
the problem with gun violence.
If somebody wants to kill somebody,
they're going to try to find a way
to kill something whether it's a rock, a knife, or a gun.
A rock?
Yeah.
Does any country in the world have a problem with mass rock
throwings in schools?
Afghanistan probably.
[LAUGHS]
How many knifings have you had in the UK?
Do you mean mass knife killings?
Yeah.
Could you name a mass knife killing in schools?
No because I hadn't paid that much attention to all of that.
I think that shooters kill people not guns.
OK, is anyone here a shooter or they're
just people with guns?
I think they are people with guns.
They are not shooters.
And what's the difference?
It's somebody who has a predisposition to fire--
you know, it's that neurons that are wired together
fire together.
AMY HOGGART (VOICEOVER): What?
Why did this just get so pseudosciencey?
So can anyone tell me who is really at fault?
The teacher left the back door open,
so what's the level of training there?
That's how he got in the first place.
Is it the teacher's fault?
It's a mix.
AMY HOGGART (VOICEOVER): But the real riddle is whether to blame
teachers or arm them.
One of the ways that we can resolve those safety issues
is to arm our teachers.
Should we have the like cleaning staff and
the cafeteria staff also armed?
That's an interesting question.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
AMY HOGGART: And if a lunch lady with a gun
sounds like a very bad solution, don't worry.
They also have even worse solutions.
What should children do in a situation like the one
this week at Robb Elementary if there's a gunman in the room?
If they don't want to carry guns,
they could use flashlights.
How do flashlights help against assault rifles?
Flashlights help against assaults,
and it gives you a tool.
So the kids need to be armed with flashlights?
I can assault you with a flashlight.
I can assault you with a fork.
AMY HOGGART (VOICEOVER): A fork?
OK, I'm going to let that one sink in.
But what is empowering these folks?
We can never forget that we have
a right to our Second Amendment which is under siege.
AMY HOGGART: Oh, right, the Second Amendment.
It is incredibly important to preserve
our Second Amendment rights.
That's about the only thing we got going for us right now.
AMY HOGGART: Many NRA members forge
their personal identity and fashion choices
around the Second Amendment.
This one sentence must be incredibly important to them.
Tell me the Second Amendment.
[EXHALES] You hit me on the wrong spot there.
It's just one sentence.
Yeah, I don't know the whole sentence right now.
OK, I know it's hard because you don't know it, but--
Well, I do know it.
I did go to law school.
Oh, great.
So as a politician yourself who nearly knows the Second
Amendment but not all of it, what
do you imagine the rest of the Second Amendment
might say if you knew it.
I couldn't tell it to you.
It's the right to bear arms.
But it's like a whole sentence, isn't it?
Well, yeah, but I can't remember all that stuff.
Right to bear arms.
But do you remember any of the rest of it?
Um, no, just right to bear arms.
How do you pick which bit to know?
Is it the bit that supports your beliefs?
Yes.
Take your time. Take your time.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
AMY HOGGART (VOICEOVER): Not one single person could tell me
the Second Amendment, but if they got close,
they did conveniently leave out one important bit,
the part where it says, well regulated
because well regulated gun ownership is not something
they want to talk about.
So we must ask ourselves if these are the people
and this is the organization that we want driving the gun
legislation for the whole country
and how many more innocent need to die to protect
their so-called freedom.
Freedom does come with a bit of a cost.
The cost of children's lives?
Just in general.
AMY HOGGART (VOICEOVER): (FRUSTRATED) Jesus Christ,
can they just try to answer the most important question?
So why is the USA the only country
with a big gun violence problem and mass shootings in schools?
That's a real good question.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Do you have an answer for the question?
That's a political question.
I don't feel like answering directly--
- OK. - --right now.
Save it for June?
Yeah.
AMY HOGGART (VOICEOVER): Luckily for us, it's June,
and we need to stop worrying about being too soon
and start worrying about being too late.