Article snippet: deadly mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida galvanized a national conversation on gun policy reform. In a highly anticipated speech, he made the case that there is room for the gun lobby and gun control advocates to find common ground. "The NRA does care," he told the gathering at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland. In a speech to a pro-Trump and pro-gun rights crowd, LaPierre defended the legally purchased type of AR-15 to carry out the attack. The subsequent backlash and campaign for change, led largely by student survivors of the mass shooting, has focused, in part, squarely on the gun lobby as a roadblock to substantive reforms. LaPierre focused on lawmakers critical of the gun lobby and members of the mainstream media as the beneficiaries of the heated debate over gun policy. "Chris Murphy, Nancy Pelosi, and more, cheered on by the national media, eager to blame the NRA and call for even more government control. They hate the NRA. They hate the Second Amendment. They hate individual freedom," he said. "In the rush of calls for more government, they also revealed their true selves. The elites don't care, not one whit about America's school system. And school children. If they truly cared, what they would do is they would protect them, for them, it is not a safety issue. It is a political issue." LaPierre also called out systemic and societal “failures” that form a complicated web of ... Link to the full article to read more