WASHINGTON (AP) — Speakers at the National Rifle Association annual meeting assailed a Chicago gun ban that doesn’t exist, ignored security upgrades at the Texas school where children were slaughtered and roundly distorted national gun and crime statistics as they pushed back against any tightening of gun laws.
A look at some of the claims:
TEXAS SEN. TED CRUZ: “Gun bans do not work. Look at Chicago. If they worked, Chicago wouldn’t be the murder hellhole that it has been for far too long.”
THE FACTS: Chicago hasn’t had a ban on handguns for over a decade. And in 2014, a federal judge overturned the city’s ban on gun shops. Big supporters of the NRA, like Cruz, may well know this, given that it was the NRA that sued Chicago over its old handgun ban and argued the case before the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled the ban unconstitutional in 2010.
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Michael Wyke
Former president Donald Trump speaks during the Leadership Forum at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
FORMER PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: “Classroom doors should be hardened to make them lockable from the inside and closed to intruders from the outside.”
THE FACTS: As commonsensical as that might sound, it could backfire in a horrific way, experts warn.
A lock on the classroom door is one of the most basic and widely recommended school safety measures. But in Uvalde, it kept victims in and police out.
Nearly 20 officers stood in a hallway outside of the classrooms school for more than 45 minutes before agents used a master key to open the classroom’s locked door.
And Trump’s proposal doesn’t take into account what would happen if class members were trapped behind a locked door and one of the students was the aggressor in future attacks.
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CRUZ: “The rate of gun ownership hasn’t changed.”
THE FACTS: This is misleading. The percentage of U.S. households with at least one gun in the home hasn’t significantly changed over the past 50 years. But the number of assault-type rifles, like the one used in the Uvalde school shooting and dozens of other school shootings, has skyrocketed since legislators let a 1994 ban on such weapons expire in 2004.
In the years leading up to and following that ban, an estimated 8.5 million AR-platform rifles were in circulation in the United States. Since the ban was lifted, the rifles — called “modern sporting rifles” by the industry — have surged in popularity. The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimated there were nearly 20 million in circulation in 2020.
Michael Wyke
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks during the Leadership Forum at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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CRUZ: “Had Uvalde gotten a grant to upgrade school security, they might have made changes that would have stopped the shooter and killed him there on the ground, before he hurt any of these innocent kids and teachers.”
THE FACTS: This claim overlooks the fact that Uvalde had doubled its school-security budget and spent years upgrading the protections for schoolchildren. None of that stopped the gunman who killed 19 pupils and two teachers.
Annual district budgets show the school system went from spending $204,000 in 2017 to $435,000 for this year. The district had developed a safety plan back in 2019 that included staffing the schools with four officers and four counselors. It had installed a fence and invested in a program that monitors social media for threats and purchased software to screen school visitors.
The grant that Cruz claims would have been life-saving was from a failed 2013 bill that planned to help schools hire more armed officers and install bulletproof doors. Uvalde’s school did have an officer but the person wasn’t on the campus at the time the shooter entered the building. And, Cruz’s call for bulletproof doors might not have worked in this case, given that police were unable to breech the locked door of the classroom where the shooter murdered children and teachers.
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Michael Wyke
Mounted Houston police officers patrol the street between the George R. Brown Convention Center and Discovery Green Park where protesters began gathering outside the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting, Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Michael Wyke
Nancy Pablo, with the Alianza Latina International, holds crosses with photos of victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting as she protests with others at Discovery Green Park across the street from the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Michael Wyke
Claudia Zapata, left, and Celia Munoz, right, both with the Alianza Latina International, hold crosses with photos of victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, as she protests with others at Discovery Green Park across the street from the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Jae C. Hong
Mounted police officers tell protesters to move back across the street from the National Rifle Association annual meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
People gather outside the George R. Brown Convention Center to protest the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
Protesters yell as a member of the National Rifle Association walks past them after attending its annual meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
A member of the National Rifle Association and protesters exchange words outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Michael Wyke
Johnny Mata, a long time civil rights organizer in Houston, speaks during a press conference by the League of United Latin American Citizens outside of the National Rifle Association's annual meeting held at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Michael Wyke
Tejano singer Little Joe, center with microphone, with Little Joe y la Familia, speaks during a press conference by the League of United Latin American Citizens outside of the National Rifle Association's annual meeting held at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Jae C. Hong
Protesters carry crosses with photos of victims of the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, as they demonstrate outside the George R. Brown Convention Center where the National Rifle Association's annual meeting is held in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Michael Wyke
Joe Ortiz, right, and his daughter Jennifer Ortiz Prather, left, speak outside of the National Rifle Association's annual meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. They spent last night printing up 600 T-shirts to hand out for donations to benefit the Robb Elementary School Memorial Fund. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Jae C. Hong
Protesters chant slogans outside the George R. Brown Convention Center to protest the National Rifle Association annual meeting in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
A man walks with a sign outside the George R. Brown Convention Center to protest the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
Jolie Miller chats a slogan while protesting the National Rifle Association's annual meeting outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
Desmond Chen, 11, chants a slogan during a protest against the National Rifle Association's annual meeting outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
A woman holds a sign during a protest against the National Rifle Association's annual meeting outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
A protester holds a sign bearing the names of this week's elementary school shooting victims during a rally against the National Rifle Association's annual meeting outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
Protesters hold up their signs condemning the National Rifle Association's annual meeting outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
A sign demanding action on gun control is seen during a protest against the National Rifle Association's annual meeting outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
A member of the National Rifle Association with two handguns walks past protesters to attend its annual meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Michael Wyke
Protesters hold a rally at Discovery Green Park, across the street from the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting held at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Michael Wyke
Protesters hold a rally at Discovery Green Park, across the street from the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting held at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Michael Wyke
Protesters hold a rally at Discovery Green Park, across the street from the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting held at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Michael Wyke
Protesters rally at Discovery Green Park, across the street from the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting held at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Jae C. Hong
A member of the National Rifle Association plugs his ears with his fingers as he walks past protesters during the NRA's annual meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
12-year-old Eduardo Abarca wears a T-shirt honoring the victims in this week's elementary school shooting while attending a protest against the National Rifle Association's annual meeting outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
People protest the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Michael Wyke
Children hold signs and photos of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting victims during a rally at Discovery Green Park, across the street from the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting held at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Michael Wyke
A counter protester, center, is shouted down and has his megaphone taken away by rally attendees for pro-gun control efforts at Discovery Green Park, across the street from the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting held at the George R. Brown Convention Center Friday, May 27, 2022, in Houston. (AP Photo/Michael Wyke)
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Jae C. Hong
A member of the National Rifle Association plugs his ears with his fingers as he walks past protesters during the NRA's annual meeting at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
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Jae C. Hong
A member of the National Rifle Association walks with two girls past protesters outside the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Friday, May 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
