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Gun-law reform activists plan rally, billboards as NRA meets in Dallas

Buttons expressing opposition to the National Rifle Association hang on a vendor's cart during a gun control demonstration outside Dallas City Hall during the NRA convention in 2018. The convention is returning to Dallas this week and is expected to draw opposition.  (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News/TNS)
By Sarah Bahari The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — Hundreds of demonstrators are expected to rally in Dallas on Saturday outside the National Rifle Association’s annual convention to call for new laws to curb gun violence.

Around downtown, digital billboards have begun highlighting the number of gun deaths in Texas, and a faith-based organization will display T-shirts to represent a fraction of those who have died from gun violence.

As the nation’s largest pro-gun lobby prepares to meet, gun-law reform activists want to draw attention to what they call the crippling toll of firearm violence. Gun deaths in Texas have jumped 62% since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was first elected, from 2,848 in 2014 to 4,630 in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gun-violence prevention organizations including Moms Demand Action and Giffords, as well as interfaith policy group Texas Impact will join Saturday’s rally outside Dallas City Hall to push for stricter gun laws, including requiring background checks for all firearm sales and raising the age to buy one from 18 to 21.

“This doesn’t have to be a partisan issue. It can just be about safety,” Miriam Sharma, co-leader of the Dallas Moms Demand Action coalition, told The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday. “No matter our political party, we can all agree this is a problem.”

More than 70,000 gun-rights supporters are expected at the convention at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, which features 14 acres of guns and gear and classes on concealed carry and long-range shooting. Former President Donald Trump, who is in the middle of running for election and a criminal trial, is scheduled to give the keynote address. Abbott, a longtime NRA supporter, is also attending.

This week, Giffords, a national gun-violence prevention organization, announced it would launch a Texas chapter that aims to engage groups affected by gun violence and recruit, train and elect gun safety leaders. Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona founded the organization after she was shot while meeting with constituents in 2011.

As part of its launch, the organization has placed more than 20 electronic billboards across downtown Dallas and along Stemmons Freeway highlighting the role the NRA and gun industry play in the gun violence epidemic.

“We’re not here to take anyone’s guns,” said Roger Garza, Texas state director for Giffords. “We want to make sure Texas has common-sense gun laws that save lives.”

NRA spokesman Nick Perrine said Monday the annual convention is a celebration of the Second Amendment.

“Obviously folks have a First Amendment right to express their views,” he said. “Just like our members will be gathering and using their First Amendment rights to celebrate freedom and the Second Amendment.”

Acknowledging Texas’ strong gun culture, Garza said he understands the state will not be an easy sell on gun-law reform. But he said the gun lobby’s grip on politics has weakened in recent years, largely as a result of seemingly constant mass shootings, giving reform an opening.

The NRA does not publicly release membership figures, but numerous reports say the organization has lost about 1 million members since its peak in 2018, and that its revenue has seen a substantial drop. Longtime leader Wayne LaPierre was found guilty in February of misspending millions of dollars of NRA money on exotic getaways and trips on private planes and yachts. LaPierre announced his resignation days before the trial was set to start.

Garza also pointed to polling from the Texas Politics Project that shows three-fourths of Texas voters say they would support raising the legal age to buy a gun from 18 to 21.

“How Texans feel about gun safety does not match up with legislators,” Garza said Wednesday. “What we are working to ultimately do is bring those things in line with one another.”

As part of Saturday’s rally, Texas Impact will display an installation featuring 500 T-shirts, each representing a person who died from gun violence — both suicides and homicides — in Dallas County. The faith-based organization worked with six Dallas-area congregations to make the shirts.

Bobby Watson, the organization’s policy advocate, said the installation is meant as a memorial and call to action for policy makers.

“The cost of inaction around gun-violence prevention is staggering,” he said Tuesday. “If we don’t try to reach solutions, there is a real human cost.”

Protests are nothing new for NRA meetings and are unlikely to disrupt meetings inside the convention center. In 2022, the NRA met just days after the Uvalde massacre, in which 19 children and two adults were murdered, drawing fierce protests in Houston. Some shouted “NRA go away,” and “Shame” while carrying signs.

And in 2018, both pro- and anti-gun activists flocked to downtown Dallas during the NRA convention, where police tried to keep the two sides apart. Then-Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway urged the NRA to reconsider meeting, saying it was inappropriate for the city to host the convention three months after a gunman killed 17 people at a Parkland, Fla., high school.