Trump speaks at U.S. gun lobby event days after Texas mass shooting

US: As the United States still emerges from the shock after Tuesday’s shooting at an elementary school in Texas’ Uvalde city, one of the country’s biggest gun lobbies – the National Rifle Association (NRA) – has pressed ahead with preparations for its annual gathering starting on Friday in Houston, about 450 km away from Tuesday’s crime scene.

A report on Friday said that the NRA is likely to shrug off new calls for more gun control measures despite the latest shooting not just in Uvalde, but also at a supermarket in New York’s Buffalo earlier in May.

Former United States President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak during the annual gathering held yesterday.

Meanwhile, Firearms have surpassed motor vehicle crashes as the leading cause of death among American youngsters, with official data showing a strong rise in gun-related homicides such as the killing of 19 children in a Texas school rampage. Overall, 4,368 children and adolescents up to the age of 19 died from firearms in 2020, a rate of 5.4 per 100,000 a dashboard by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed. Homicides made up nearly two-thirds of the gun deaths.

By comparison, there were 4,036 deaths linked to motor vehicles, the previous leading cause of death among this age group.

– THE MALAY MAIL