US Business

Keith Jehlen says the shooting at a Texas elementary school makes him “sick,” but that “you can’t blame the gun” used to murder 19 small children and two teachers.

“We’ve always had guns in this country,” the 68-year-old retired US Postal Service worker said, noting that he personally owns more than 50 firearms.

Jehlen was standing in line to see former president Donald Trump speak at a National Rifle Association convention that is controversially being held just hours from Uvalde, the town where the school massacre took place earlier in the week.

Reflecting on the shooting, he grimaced and said: “It made me sick to my stomach.”

But guns are not the problem, said Jehlen, who was dressed in camouflage shorts and a Trump hat. He argued that the disaster may well have unfolded differently if people at the school were armed.

“Killers aren’t afraid of the judge, they’re not afraid of the police,” he said. “They should be afraid of the victim they’re going after.”

The NRA event — which lasts through Sunday — is being held in a vast downtown convention center with anti-gun protesters gathering outside.

“Blood is on your hands,” one protester’s sign said. “Guns = death,” read another.

Trump drew loud applause from the crowd when he addressed the convention later in the day. He somberly read out the names of the Uvalde shooting victims, and urged Americans regardless of political affiliation to “find common ground.”

But he nevertheless turned political, blasting “repulsive” Democrats for villainizing “peaceful, law-abiding” NRA members who own guns.

– ‘This is not Australia’ –

In booth after booth in the cavernous convention hall, hundreds of firearms — all made inert with their firing pins removed — were on display, from small handguns to AR-15s, the ubiquitous semi-automatic weapon used by the gunman in Uvalde.

Tactical gear, hunting equipment and clothing shared space with gun accessories including high-power scopes, suppressors and 60-round magazines.

Retired law enforcement officer Rick Gammon eyed a wall of black semi-automatic rifles at the convention, saying any efforts to take firearms from Americans were doomed to fail. 

“You’ll never take people’s guns away. This is not Australia,” 51-year-old Gammon said as he looked at the Hellion rifles — a compact bullpup design that he noted would fit well behind his driver’s seat or in his gun safe at home.

After the April 1996 Port Arthur massacre of 35 people, Australia enacted tougher new gun laws that included a general ban on the use of semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and pump-action shotguns except for specific purposes.

America — plagued by far more frequent gun violence, but with the right to bear arms enshrined in the Constitution — has repeatedly failed to take action after mass shootings.

“I’d love to see universal background checks,” said Gammon, referring to a long-sought reform that has majority support in the United States. “But it’s not going to stop someone hell-bent on crime.”

– ‘Villainizing a tool’ –

The convention is not just a gathering of gun enthusiasts, but also a place where they can test the “feel” of weapons they are considering buying.

“Oh I like this,” Lisy V, 31, told a gun manufacturer representative as she tested the weight and balance of a 9-millimeter pistol.

“You put it in purple too, and that got my attention,” added the military veteran, who is in the market for a new pistol that she can conceal in a holster under her skirt, because “it’s too hot for pants in Texas.”

But she turned contemplative when asked about Uvalde.

“Personally I feel like there should be more gun education,” she said, but with 18-year-olds able to join the military, the veteran believes they should be able to buy assault rifles as well.

“They can enlist, right? If they can enlist, they can shoot a weapon,” she said.

Jim Maynard, a gun owner and industry advocate, said that while there is “a lot of uncertainty” in America today, and people are grieving, he agreed with the decision to not postpone the NRA convention.

“Villainizing a tool doesn’t address the problem that we’re having,” he said.

People blaming guns for America’s violence crisis was just “hype,” and they should focus more on expanding mental health programs.

“The protest outside does zero for preventing the next shooting from happening — and it’s not going to stop a person from committing violence,” Maynard added.

A top Texas security official said Friday that police were wrong to delay storming the classroom where a teen gunman was holed up with dead and wounded children — fueling fears that police inaction cost lives in Uvalde.

Police have come under intense criticism since Tuesday’s tragedy over why it took well over an hour to neutralize the gunman — who ultimately killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.

“From the benefit of hindsight… it was the wrong decision, period,” Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw told an emotional news conference, at which his voice broke repeatedly as he was assailed by questions over the delay.

“From what we know, we believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can,” McCraw said, adding: “If I thought it would help, I’d apologize.”

McCraw revealed in harrowing detail a series of emergency calls — including by a child begging for police help — that were made from the two adjoining classrooms where the gunman was barricaded.

But in seeking to explain the delay, he also said the on-scene commander believed at the time that the 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was in there alone, with no survivors, after his initial assault.

“I’m not defending anything, but you go back in the timeline, there was a barrage, hundreds of rounds were pumped in in four minutes, okay, into those two classrooms,” McCraw said.

“Any firing afterwards was sporadic and it was at the door. So the belief is that there may not be anybody living anymore.”

McCraw separately told reporters, however, that a 911 call received at 12:16 pm — one of several made from inside the classrooms — reported eight or nine children still alive. 

As many as 19 officers were outside the classroom door at that time, plus an unknown number of tactical team members who had just arrived, according to McCraw’s timeline.

The door was eventually opened at 12:50 pm with keys provided by a janitor.

McCraw said the caller — a child who dialed 911 multiple times — begged for police to come. Her final call was cut off as she made it outside.

Texas Governor Gregg Abbott meanwhile told journalists who grilled him during a testy news conference Friday that he was given inaccurate information in the wake of the massacre.

“I was misled,” Abbott said. “The information that I was given turned out in part to be inaccurate, and I’m absolutely livid about that.”

– NRA convention –

The powerful National Rifle Association kicked off a major convention in Houston Friday, but a string of high-profile no-shows underscored deep unease at the timing of the gun lobby event.

Former president Donald Trump criticized calls for tightened gun controls in remarks at the three-day annual convention, held around four hours’ drive from Uvalde.

“The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens,” Trump said. “The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens.” 

Thousands of gun enthusiasts descended on the event, filling a vast convention hall packed with booths displaying guns, walls of semi-automatic rifles and hunting products.

“This is it, this is the mega,” said a man in his 60s, as he handled a new rifle he was considering purchasing.

But with millions of Americans grieving and angry following the Uvalde shooting, “American Pie” singer Don McLean led a wave of dropouts from the event, while Abbott said he would no longer appear in person.

McLean said it would be “disrespectful and hurtful” to perform at the “Grand Ole Night of Freedom” concert scheduled during the convention on Saturday. At least five other country music stars, including Lee Greenwood and Larry Gatlin, have also reportedly pulled out.

Facing mounting scrutiny, the gun manufacturer Daniel Defense — which made the assault rifle purchased by Ramos — also decided to stay away.

– Horror and trauma –

The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest since 20 children and six staff were killed at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

Highlighting the horror and trauma of the Uvalde massacre, 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo described smearing herself with the blood of a dead classmate in a bid to hide from the gunman, saying she lay there for what felt like hours until help finally came.

Cerrillo, whose hair has begun to fall out in clumps since the massacre, also told CNN that she and a friend scrabbled for their dead teacher’s cellphone and used it to make an urgent plea to 911 operators for help.

President Joe Biden will visit Uvalde on Sunday to once again make the case for gun control, as activists set about galvanizing voters on the issue in the run-up to November’s midterm election.

Despite the scourge of mass shootings, efforts at nationwide gun control — from banning assault rifles to mandating mental health and criminal background checks on buyers — have repeatedly failed, although polls show support from a majority of Americans.

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

– Pro-Russian forces claim key eastern town – 

Moscow-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine say they have captured Lyman, a strategic town between the city of Severodonetsk and the eastern administrative centre of Kramatorsk, which remain under Kyiv’s control.

The pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk region say they have “liberated and taken full control of 220 settlements, including Krasny Liman”, using an old name for Lyman.

Ukrainian forces are also battling to hold onto Severodonetsk as Russia wages all-out war for the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which make up Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland.

– Orthodox Church cuts Russia ties –

The Moscow branch of Kyiv’s Orthodox Church says it is cutting ties with Russia over the invasion, declaring “full independence” in a historic move against Russia’s spiritual authorities.

After holding a council focused on Russia’s “aggression”, the church declares “full independence” from Russian Patriarch Kirill, the second Orthodox schism in Ukraine in recent years.

Ukraine has been under Moscow’s spiritual leadership since at least the 17th century.

– 10 killed in central city – 

Ukraine’s national guard says around 10 people have been killed in strikes on a military facility in the central city of Dnipro, which had so far been relatively spared by the fighting.

– Zelensky warns of Donbas ‘genocide’ –

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Moscow of carrying out a “genocide” in Donbas, where Russian forces are closing in on the cities of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk.

In his daily televised address, Zelensky warns that Russia’s offensive could empty Donbas of its population.

“All this, including the deportation of our people and the mass killings of civilians, is an obvious policy of genocide pursued by Russia,” he says.

– Ukraine flag removed from Putin Peak –

Kyrgyzstan’s climbing federation says it has removed a Ukrainian flag from a mountain named after Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a police investigation of the stunt, and replaced it with the Kyrgyz flag.

A climber earlier this week posted a video of the flag on the mountain dubbed Putin Peak, which rises 4,446 metres (14,587 feet) above sea level.

– Russian lawmakers urge ‘immediate withdrawal’ –

Two Communist lawmakers in Russia’s far east urge Putin to put an end to Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine in a rare public show of dissent.

Lawmaker Leonid Vasyukevich warns “there will be even more orphans in our country” if troops are not immediately withdrawn. He is backed by another lawmaker in the assembly of the Primorsky Krai region.

The head of the local Communist faction says the statement had not been agreed with the party and promises to take “the toughest measures” against the pair.

– Russian to boost grain exports –

Russia says it plans to ramp up grain exports against the backdrop of a looming global food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. 

Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev says Russia will increase its grain exports from over 37 million tonnes in the 2021-2022 season ending June 30 to 50 million tonnes in the new season starting July 1.

Kyiv and the West blames Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian ports for stalling grain exports from Europe’s breadbasket.

Putin tells Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in a telephone call that the accusations are “groundless” and blamed Western sanctions on Russia for spiralling food prices.

– Ukraine’s debt rating cut –

S&P Global Ratings cuts Ukraine’s debt rating and says the outlook is negative, due to the ongoing fallout from the Russian invasion and the expectation the conflict will not end any time soon.

The agency lowers the grade on Ukraine’s long- and short-term foreign currency debt to ‘CCC+/C’ from ‘B-/B’ due to the “expectation of a prolonged period of macroeconomic instability in the country.”

– Russia expects energy revenue windfall –

Russia expects to receive $14.4 billion in additional oil and gas revenues this year, the finance minister says, adding that part of the windfall will be spent on Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine.

“We expect to receive up to a trillion rubles in additional oil and gas revenues, according to the forecast that we have developed with the ministry of economic development,” Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said in remarks broadcast on state television.

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A jury began deliberations on Friday in the blockbuster defamation case between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard after a six-week trial featuring blistering mutual accusations of domestic abuse.

The seven-person jury met for about two hours after lawyers delivered closing arguments in the case heard in Fairfax, Virginia, near the US capital.

The jury, which is considering both Depp’s defamation claim against Heard and her counterclaim against him, will resume deliberations on Tuesday after the holiday weekend.

Elaine Bredehoft, an attorney for Heard, said the defamation suit filed against the “Aquaman” star by Depp and a campaign of “global humiliation” has made her life “pure hell.”

“It has destroyed her life. This has consumed her. She’s getting death threats,” Bredehoft told the jury.

Benjamin Chew, one of Depp’s lawyers, countered that while the 58-year-old “Pirates of the Caribbean” star may not be a “saint” and has struggled with drugs and alcohol, “he is not a violent abuser.”

“He did not and does not deserve to have his life, his legacy destroyed by a vicious lie,” Chew said. “Miss Heard’s attempt to paint herself as a heroic survivor, an innocent survivor, and Mr Depp as a terrifying abuser, are utterly false.

“We ask you, we implore you, to give him his name, his reputation and his career back,” he told the jury.

Bredehoft said any damage to Depp’s career was self-inflicted.

“Hold this man responsible,” she told the jury. “He has never accepted responsibility for anything in his life.

“He’s blamed everybody in the world — his agent, his manager, his lawyer, Amber, his friends, everybody.”

Depp’s lawyer Chew meanwhile referenced the #Metoo movement but said “it’s for true survivors of abuse, not Miss Heard.”

“Nobody has come out of the woodwork to say ‘me too.’ This is the unique and singular ‘me too’ case where there’s not a single ‘me too.'”

Camille Vasquez, another of Depp’s attorneys, told the jury the evidence has “shown that Miss Heard is the abuser.” 

“She was violent, she was abusive and she was cruel,” Vasquez said.

– ‘Monster’ –

Depp filed suit against Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

The Texas-born Heard did not name Depp in the piece, but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages.

The 36-year-old Heard countersued for $100 million, claiming that she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.

Dozens of witnesses testified during the trial, including bodyguards, Hollywood executives, agents, entertainment industry experts, doctors, friends and relatives.

Depp and Heard each spent days on the witness stand during the televised trial, attended by hundreds of fans of the “Pirates” star and accompanied by a #JusticeForJohnnyDepp campaign on social media.

Video and audio recordings of heated, profanity-laced arguments between the couple were played for the jury, which was also shown photographs of injuries allegedly suffered by Heard during their volatile relationship.

Hours of testimony was devoted to a finger injury that Depp suffered while filming an installment of “Pirates” in Australia in March 2015.

Depp claimed the tip of a finger was severed when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him. Heard said she did not know how the injury occurred.

Both agreed that Depp went on to scrawl messages on walls, lampshades and mirrors using the bloody digit.

Heard said Depp would become a physically and sexually abusive “monster” during alcohol- and drug-fueled binges and resisted her repeated efforts to curb his drinking and drug use.

Depp testified that it was Heard who was frequently violent and said it has been “brutal” to listen to “outlandish” accusations of domestic abuse made against him.

“No human being is perfect, certainly not, none of us, but I have never in my life committed sexual battery, physical abuse,” he said.

– Damaged Hollywood careers –

Heard, who was married to Depp from 2015 to 2017, obtained a restraining order against him in May 2016, citing domestic violence.

Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, filed a libel suit in London against the British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.” He lost that case in November 2020.

Both sides have claimed damage to their Hollywood careers.

Heard’s legal team presented an entertainment industry expert who estimated that the actress has suffered $45-50 million in lost film and TV roles and endorsements.

An industry expert hired by Depp’s side said the actor has lost millions because of the abuse accusations, including a potential $22.5 million payday for a sixth installment of “Pirates.”

Country music has long been closely linked to America’s pro-gun lobby, but several stars have distanced themselves from the National Rife Association following the mass shooting at a Texas school.

At least five country musicians, including “God Bless the USA” performer Lee Greenwood, pulled out of the NRA’s annual convention that opened Friday in Texas. “American Pie” singer-songwriter Don McLean also withdrew.

Their initial billing highlights the close links between country music and the gun-supporting right in the United States, but experts say their withdrawal is indicative of shifting attitudes.

McLean, 76, said it would be “disrespectful and hurtful” to perform at the convention’s “Grand Ole Night of Freedom” concert scheduled for Saturday after 19 students and two teachers were killed at an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde.

Greenwood, whose patriotic signature song regularly rings out at Donald Trump rallies, said he canceled “out of respect” for those mourning, while Larry Gatlin said he couldn’t perform “in good conscience.”

T. Graham Brown and Larry Stewart, lead singer of country band Restless Heart, also withdrew, according to statements carried by USA Today.

– ‘Not monolithic’ –

Conjuring up images of stetson hats, cowboy boots and the Stars and Stripes flag, country has traditionally been the favorite music of conservative white Americans.

Its fan base is predominantly white, with roots in the largely Republican southern US states.

“Country music is not monolithic by any means,” Professor Mark Brewer, who teaches a class on music and American politics at the University of Maine, told AFP.

“But I think it’s safe to say that the predominant themes over the years have been more conservative, maybe with a hint of libertarian populism mixed in.”

Brewer says there have been “longstanding connections” between country music, conservative politics, and gun culture. One of the reasons is geography.

“There’s a big regional overlap. Country music has its origins in the American south and southern American politics have always been conservative.

“The United States as a whole has a pretty prevalent gun culture, but it’s even more pronounced in the south,” he added.

Professor Joel Schwindt, who teaches country music history at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, said the genre was “very specifically marketed” to white America from the start.

Adding to its appeal amongst white working class groups was a “firm support for the military.”

-2017 Las Vegas shooting –

Unlike Hollywood and the US pop music industry, which lean left, country music has plenty of conservative artists.

The musicians who withdrew from the NRA convention were careful not to criticize the gun body in their statements.

Stewart praised it as a “great organization” as he defended the US constitution’s famous Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Numerous country musicians have called for more gun regulations though, including Eric Church, Jason Isbell, Maren Morris and Kacey Musgraves.

Several spoke out after a man opened fire from his hotel on a Las Vegas country music festival in 2017, killing 60 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

Rosanne Cash, singer-songwriter and daughter of late country musician Johnny Cash, wrote an Op-Ed in the New York Times later that year calling on country musicians to stand up to the NRA.

“I think we’ve had more genuinely progressive stands in the last decade than we’ve probably ever had before,” including on LGBTQ issues, said Brewer.

Although there are no conclusive studies, he thinks this might be because younger performers tend to be more progressive, as are the fans they are trying to attract.

Schwindt notes that while country music’s fan base is primarily white, “regular listenership among non-white listeners, Black listeners and Hispanic listeners in particular, has grown pretty significantly over the past 10 to 20 years.”

Could that lead to more country stars taking progressive stances in the future?

“It’s something we’re seeing more of,” said Brewer. “I don’t know if I’d say that’s the dominant position still by any means. But it’s becoming more and more visible,” he added.

A jury began deliberations Friday in the defamation case between Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard after a six-week trial featuring blistering mutual accusations of domestic abuse.

The seven-person jury retired to consider a verdict in the high-profile case heard in Fairfax, Virginia, near the US capital, after lawyers for both sides delivered closing arguments.

Elaine Bredehoft, an attorney for Heard, said the defamation suit filed against the “Aquaman” star by Depp and a campaign of “global humiliation” has made her life “pure hell.”

“It has destroyed her life. This has consumed her. She’s getting death threats,” Bredehoft told the jury.

Benjamin Chew, one of Depp’s lawyers, countered that while the 58-year-old “Pirates of the Caribbean” star may not be a “saint” and has struggled with drugs and alcohol “he is not a violent abuser.”

“He did not and does not deserve to have his life, his legacy destroyed by a vicious lie,” Chew said. “Miss Heard’s attempt to paint herself as a heroic survivor, an innocent survivor, and Mr Depp as a terrifying abuser are utterly false.

“We ask you, we implore you to give him his name, his reputation and his career back,” he told the jury.

Bredehoft said any damage to Depp’s career was self-inflicted.

“Hold this man responsible,” she told the jury. “He has never accepted responsibility for anything in his life.

“He’s blamed everybody in the world — his agent, his manager, his lawyer, Amber, his friends, everybody.”

Depp’s lawyer Chew meanwhile referenced the #Metoo movement but said “it’s for true survivors of abuse, not Miss Heard.”

“Nobody has come out of the woodwork to say ‘me too.’ This is the unique and singular ‘me too’ case where there’s not a single ‘me too.'”

Camille Vasquez, another of Depp’s attorneys, told the jury the evidence has “shown that Miss Heard is the abuser.” 

“She was violent, she was abusive and she was cruel,” Vasquez said.

– ‘Monster’ –

Depp filed suit against Heard over an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post in December 2018 in which she described herself as a “public figure representing domestic abuse.”

The Texas-born Heard did not name Depp in the piece, but he sued her for implying he was a domestic abuser and is seeking $50 million in damages.

The 36-year-old Heard countersued for $100 million, claiming that she suffered “rampant physical violence and abuse” at his hands.

Dozens of witnesses testified during the trial, including bodyguards, Hollywood executives, agents, entertainment industry experts, doctors, friends and relatives.

Depp and Heard each spent days on the witness stand during the televised trial, attended by hundreds of fans of the “Pirates” star and accompanied by a #JusticeForJohnnyDepp campaign on social media.

Video and audio recordings of heated, profanity-laced arguments between the couple were played for the jury, which was also shown photographs of injuries allegedly suffered by Heard during their volatile relationship.

Hours of testimony featuring medical experts was devoted to a finger injury that Depp suffered while filming an installment of “Pirates” in Australia in March 2015.

Depp claimed the tip of a finger was severed when Heard threw a vodka bottle at him. Heard said she did not know how the injury occurred.

Both agreed that Depp went on to scrawl messages on walls, lampshades and mirrors using the bloody digit.

Heard said Depp would become a physically and sexually abusive “monster” during alcohol- and drug-fueled binges and resisted her repeated efforts to curb his drinking and drug use.

Depp testified that it was Heard who was frequently violent and said it has been “brutal” to listen to “outlandish” accusations of domestic abuse made against him.

“No human being is perfect, certainly not, none of us, but I have never in my life committed sexual battery, physical abuse,” he said.

– Damaged Hollywood careers –

Heard, who was married to Depp from 2015 to 2017, obtained a restraining order against him in May 2016, citing domestic violence.

Depp, a three-time Oscar nominee, filed a libel suit in London against the British tabloid The Sun for calling him a “wife-beater.” He lost that case in November 2020.

Both sides have claimed damage to their Hollywood careers.

Heard’s legal team presented an entertainment industry expert who estimated that the actress has suffered $45-50 million in lost film and TV roles and endorsements.

An industry expert hired by Depp’s side said the actor has lost millions because of the abuse accusations, including a potential $22.5 million payday for a sixth installment of “Pirates.”

A top Texas security official said Friday that police were wrong to delay storming the classroom where a teen gunman was holed up with dead and wounded children — fueling fears that police inaction cost lives in Uvalde.

Police in the small town have come under intense criticism since Tuesday’s tragedy over why it took well over an hour to neutralize the gunman — who ultimately killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.

“From the benefit of hindsight… it was the wrong decision, period,” Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw told an emotional news conference, at which his voice broke repeatedly as he was assailed by questions over the delay.

“From what we know, we believe there should have been an entry as soon as you can,” McCraw said, adding: “If I thought it would help, I’d apologize.”

McCraw revealed in harrowing detail that a series of emergency calls were made from inside the two adjourning classrooms where the gunman was barricaded, begging for police help — as desperate parents outside pleaded with officers to go in.

But in seeking to explain the delay, he also said the on-scene commander believed at the time that the 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was in there alone, with no survivors, after his initial assault.

“I’m not defending anything, but you go back in the timeline, there was a barrage, hundreds of rounds were pumped in in four minutes, okay, into those two classrooms,” McCraw said.

“Any firing afterwards was sporadic and it was at the door. So the belief is that there may not be anybody living anymore.”

McCraw separately told reporters, however, that a 911 call received at 12:16 pm — one of several made from inside the classrooms — reported eight or nine children still alive. 

He did not identify the caller, who he said called at least four times.

As many as 19 officers were outside the classroom door at that time, plus an unknown number of tactical team members who had just arrived, according to McCraw’s timeline.

The door was eventually breached at 12:50 pm.

McCraw said a second caller — a child — called 911 multiple times begging for police to come. During one of her calls, at 12.21, three shots could be heard, he said. 

Her final call was cut off as she made it outside, he said.

– NRA kicks off gun convention –

McCraw’s press conference came as the powerful National Rifle Association kicked off a major convention in Houston Friday, but a string of high-profile no-shows underscored deep unease at the timing of the gun lobby event.

Former president Donald Trump was among the scheduled speakers at the three-day annual convention, held around four hours drive from Uvalde.

Thousands of gun enthusiasts descended on the event, filling a vast convention hall packed with booths of gun, walls of semi-automatic rifles and hunting products.

“This is it, this is the mega,” said a man in his 60s, as he handled a new Hellion rifle he was considering purchasing.

But with millions of Americans grieving and angry following the Uvalde shooting, “American Pie” singer Don McLean led a wave of country music dropouts from the event, while the Republican state governor, Greg Abbott, said he would no longer appear in person.

McLean said it would be “disrespectful and hurtful” to perform at the “Grand Ole Night of Freedom” concert scheduled during the convention on Saturday. At least five other country music stars, including Lee Greenwood and Larry Gatlin, have also reportedly pulled out.

Facing mounting scrutiny, the gun manufacturer Daniel Defense — which made the assault rifle purchased by Ramos — also decided to stay away.

– ‘Don’t forget them, please’ –

The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest since 20 children and six staff were killed at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012.

Its victims included 10-year-old Amerie Garza — a little girl who loved her classes, drawing, and playing with clay.

“She was an innocent little girl, loving school and looking forward to summer,” her 63-year-old grandmother, Dora Mendoza, told reporters after paying respects at a makeshift memorial outside the school.

Mendoza pleaded for urgent action to prevent future shootings — as the country plunges again into the deeply divisive debate over guns.

“They need to do something about it. They need to not forget us, the babies… Don’t forget them, please,” she said through tears.

President Joe Biden will visit Uvalde on Sunday to once again make the case for gun control, as activists set about galvanizing voters on the issue in the run-up to November’s midterm election.

Despite the scourge of mass shootings, efforts at nationwide gun control — from banning assault rifles to mandating mental health and criminal background checks on buyers — have repeatedly failed, although polls show support from a majority of Americans.