After a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, the chief executive of the National Rifle Association plugged a program that the group says helps to pay for school security. But the NRA’s School Shield actually has been dormant since before the coronavirus pandemic and has received only a fraction of the NRA’s funds.
Wayne LaPierre, speaking at the NRA convention in Houston on May 27, said the NRA had launched School Shield “to help promote and fund the necessary security that every school child needs and deserves.”
Getty Images Memorials to honor the 19 children and two teachers killed by a gunman at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
But the total amount of NRA funds given to schools to improve security since the program began in 2014 is less than $2 million, or 0.08% of the $2.2 billion in revenue the NRA and its associated foundation have raised in the same timeframe, from 2014 to 2019. That is according to an NBC News review of charitable tax filings and information from the Second Amendment organization.
No grants have been awarded since 2019 because of the pandemic, a spokesman for the NRA told NBC News.
The NRA convention was held as young people across the country were preparing to march and rally today for gun control. The March for Our Lives began after a gunman killed 17 in a shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018.
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(AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Workers set up for the March for Our Lives rally on the National Mall, near the White House, in Washington, Friday, June 10, 2022. Young people across the country are rallying for gun control.