A Texas town that bills itself as a hunter’s and pro-gun haven has canceled a National Rifle Association fundraiser after some parents of children shot dead in the school shooting massacre of May in the nearby town of Uvalde showed up to protest.
The Hondo City Council has voted to revoke its rental agreement with the Friends of the NRA of Medina County which was to take place on City property on Saturday, effectively canceling the event, the local NRA said. at Post.
“It’s only been two months for us and you have ‘This is God’s County’, ‘God’s Capital’ here but what happened to ‘Love Thy Neighbor’,” Nikki Cross, the mother of ‘Uziyah Garcia, who was killed in the May 24 school shooting, said at the town council meeting.
Parents in Uvalde, where 19 children and two teachers were killed in the school shooting, appealed to the city council. They said it was too early for Hondo – only about an hour from Uvalde – to hold an event where a weapon similar to the one used in the school shooting would be raffled off.
A doctor who saw the bodies after the shooting described the children as “decapitated” by gunfire from the AR-15 type rifle used by gunman Salvador Ramos.
“We as parents deserve better than this. I mean you can’t sit here and try to sell a gun that’s amazingly similar to the one that killed our kids, you know, less than 60 days after they died,” Amerie Jo Garza’s dad, Angel, told WOAI-TV.
In the end, the city council decided to cancel the NRA’s fundraising contract, siding with the grieving parents as some residents spoke up at the meeting in support of the event.
“Emotions do not override our constitutional rights. Do you understand that? Their emotions are trying and not overriding our constitutional rights,” a Hondo resident told WOAI-TV.
After the decision was made, Hondo Mayor John McAnelly defended the decision and said it was the right one for the town.
“Our decision tonight was made in the best interest of the citizens of Hondo,” McAnelly said, according to KSAT.
