Gun control advocates plan to clash with members of the National Rifle Association this weekend, as the group holds its annual convention celebrating gun rights in Houston, Texas.
The three-day event is expected to draw up to 70,000 NRA members and political leaders who have championed the Second Amendment--including Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Rick Perry, and Bobby Jindal. But outside the convention hall and across the Houston airwaves, it’s an entirely different story.
The group Mayors Against Illegal guns is airing a TV ad in the Houston market featuring Elvin Daniel, a gun owner and NRA member, whose sister Zina Daniel was shot and killed by her husband last October. Although Zina had a restraining order prohibiting her husband from purchasing a gun, he was able to buy one anyway from a private online seller. Zina’s husband did not have to pass a background check.
“The day after he got the gun, he shot seven people, and killed my sister and two of her coworkers,” says Daniel in the ad, which ran in different markets earlier in April. “I think had a universal criminal background check been done, my sister Zina would still be with us right now.”
Gun control groups are planning to protest the convention, including one that will read aloud the names of 4,000 gun violence victims.
Watch Thomas Roberts discuss the battle for gun control with Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, and NBC's Kasie Hunter, outside the NRA convention in Houston, Texas.