Dallas City Council member Dwaine Caraway has asked the National Rifle Association to hold its scheduled gun convention in another city. Caraway, a Democrat who works under Mayor Mike Rawlings, made the announcement on Monday.
Caraway, who was the 60th mayor of Dallas, stopped short of saying his city should cancel the NRA convention which will take place at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas May 3-6.
Caraway is a gun enthusiast who boasts owning a gun “in every room” of his home. But he asked the NRA to “step up to the plate” and call for the ban of assault rifles or hold their convention in another city.
He made the statement in the wake of the Florida shooting tragedy after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz gunned down 17 of his former classmates and faculty at a Parkland, Florida high school last week.
“It is a tough call when you ask the NRA to reconsider coming to Dallas, but it is putting all citizens first, and getting them to come to the table and elected officials to come to the table and to address this madness now,” Caraway said.
“I have five guns, one in my car, one in every room of my house,” said Caraway, 65. “I am saddened at the fact that every time that we turn around is some type of gun violence.”
Caraway called on the NRA to “stop the madness” now before more children are killed.
George W. Bush, a Republican, famously refused to renew the ban on assault rifles enacted in 1994.
“The president doesn’t set the Congressional timetable. Congress sets the timetable,” said then-White House spokesman Scott McClellan, when asked if Bush would renew the ban in 2004.
The legislation previously banned firearms like AK-47s, Uzis and TEC-9s from being sold legally in the United States.
Congress declined to step up and renew the 1994 assault weapons ban when it expired, and no president has proposed a similar bill.
