The National Rifle Association plans on holding a major gathering this weekend in Houston amid calls to move or postpone the event following Tuesday’s mass shooting at a Texas elementary school.
Event organizers said that the event will be attended by a number of prominent conservatives, including President Donald Trump.
With the event going on as scheduled, officials are preparing for protests. According to the Houston Chronicle, at least two groups plan on holding protests this weekend at the NRA event.
"When you go and shoot up a school full of kids and teachers... you've taken someone's right to life away," Ashton Woods, leader of Black Lives Matter Houston, told the Chronicle.
Houston’s Democratic mayor, Sylvester Turner, said some people want the city to cancel the NRA meeting, but he said they can’t break the contract.
The greater question, he says, is why politicians still plan to speak thereafter the shooting in Uvalde. Gov. Greg Abbott and Sen. Ted Cruz are among other Republicans scheduled to address a leadership forum sponsored by the NRA’s lobbying arm.
“It’s about elected officials at the highest level in our state going and speaking and endorsing those policies and that’s wrong," Turner said. "And you can’t pray and send condolences on one day and then be going and championing guns on the next.”
Through a spokesperson, Trump said he still plans on attending the event “to give an important address to the America.”
Those attending Trump’s address will be prohibited from carrying firearms, the Chronicle reported.