Posted on 08/04/2022 1:09:54 PM PDT by decal
With the San Antonio news media and local community watching, Hondo City Council on Monday revoked the permit for the Medina Area Friends of the National Rifle Association fundraiser scheduled to be held this Saturday in the city’s Medina County Fair Hall. The 15th annual fundraiser dinner, including a raffle of two guns, a Ruger Max 9 pistol and an AR-15 rifle, was scheduled for Aug. 6, at 5:30 p.m., with proceeds to benefit the NRA Foundation. In 2021, the Friends of NRA event was held Aug. 7 at the same site.
According to their social media site, Friends of the NRA is a grassroots fundraising program celebrating American Values and the Second Amendment through 1,100 annual local Friends of NRA events across the country.
A separate Love to Uvalde barbecue plate fundraiser will be be held at Hondo Golf Course at 702 Disosway beginning at 11:45 a.m. on Saturday, with proceeds to benefit the survivors of the May 24 Robb Elementary tragedy.
Council elected to hold Monday’s special meeting, in attempt to make the best decision for the City of Hondo, after hearing from Hondo resident David Hernandez at last Monday’s regular council meeting. Hernandez, the uncle of two of the 21 victims killed in the May 24 massacre, asked council to cancel or delay the event, which he said was “distasteful and disrespectful to hold so soon and so close to Uvalde.”
A total of 23 residents from Hondo, Uvalde, D’Hanis, Castroville, LaCoste and even New Braunfels spoke during the public comment phase of Monday’s special council meeting. Eight speakers offered comments in support of the annual NRA fundraiser as a charitable firearms safety and education organization. However, 15 speakers, some who were family members of the 19 children and two teachers murdered at Robb Elementary, gave emotional and impassioned pleas to council to cancel the NRA event.
“Friends of the NRA is a charitable foundation,” argued Hondo resident Joe Breton, who asked council not to cancel the event. “Proceeds raised go to firearms safety training, youth education, hunter safety training programs, ranch development, law enforcement and conservation. None of it goes to lobbying, legislation, activism or gun manufacturers. Most of the money raised stays in our community. There was no annual event held in Uvalde this year out of compassion for those who lost loved ones.”
“Thank you, City Council and Mayor, for requesting this special meeting,” said resident David Hernandez addressing council for the second time in one week. “The fundraiser for the Friends of NRA being held here in Hondo, as many people have said, is a slap in the face to family members of the victims. We are here from Hondo and Uvalde.
“I recommend the next step is to cancel this event,” continued Hernandez. “The Friends of the NRA have 26 fundraisers July 28-29, here in Texas alone. If you cancel one event, it will not bankrupt the NRA, a multimillion dollar organization. But it will show compassion to those 19 children and two teachers who were killed with an inanimate object.
“If council lets the event proceed, I assure you there will be a protest and most likely a counter protest, with media most likely present,” added Hernandez.
“I am asking the Medina Friends of the NRA to become friends to our Uvalde neighbors, who lost 21 in a horrific school shooting, and to please postpone the fundraiser highlighting the AR-15,” said Kate Parrish of Hondo.
Council recessed into executive session at 6:25 p.m. to seek legal advice and consider the facilities rental to the Friends of NRA. At 7:19 p.m., council reconvened into open session.
Mayor John McAnelly then read the fair hall rental agreement.
“In accordance with the rental agreement, the City Council reserves the right to refuse the use of any facility to any person or organization for misconduct or when deemed to be in the best interest of the Medina County Fairgrounds and property,” said McAnelly.
“This City Council revokes the rental agreement with the Friends of the NRA for the use of the fair hall on Aug. 6, 2022, with a refund of payments already made to the city,” added the mayor, prefacing the forthcoming motion.
“I make the motion to revoke the permit for the NRA event,” said Place 5 Councilman John Villa. Place 2 Councilman Bobby Vela seconded the motion, which passed 4-1. Place 1 Councilman Brett Williams cast the lone opposing vote.
Williams offered a heartfelt comment prior to his vote.
“This is the hardest thing I have ever had to do when I look down at those beautiful faces down there,” said Williams of the upset and grieving family members of the Uvalde victims and their supporters in the audience.
“A solitary deranged individual, whose motives will never be fully known, shattered the lives of numerous families in Uvalde,” he said. “Undeniably this heartless violation against the lives of so many will never be forgotten. Still very fresh in our hearts, the heinous act of one person has understandably intensified our emotions, which oftentimes leads to unjustified knee-jerk reactions.
“At this time we are faced with one of those reactions, and I’m by myself in this,” added Williams. “Denying the rights of legal, law abiding organizations and individuals is not the answer. It is reprehensible to suggest that an organization, its attendees or products being raffled, are even vaguely related to an evil person’s decision to cowardly take the lives of innocent children and teachers. Individuals related to this upcoming event are not supporting mass murder. Many of them, like you and me, wept and fell onto our knees praying to God for comfort and peace. Truth.
“That said, I cannot support violating the rights of law abiding citizens who peacefully wish to access the facilities of our city,” he concluded.
After the meeting McAnelly offered a statement to the audience and media still present.
“The City Council wishes to express our support for the families who lost loved ones in the tragic event of May 24 at Robb Elementary and to the community of Uvalde,” he said. “Council recognizes everyone’s interest in our decision this evening. Our decision was made in the best interest of Hondo citizens. Although revoking the Friends of the NRA’s use of the Fair Hall may not be what some would have preferred, I assure you that all parties’ interests in this matter were considered before the City Council voted.”
On Tuesday morning, McAnelly said he was not certain if the Friends of the NRA would simply relocate their event or engage in litigation against the city of Hondo.
“I don’t know how things will go from here,” said the mayor. “The appropriate folks within the city are contacting the people who made the reservations for the NRA event and will be refunding all the funds that they paid. I don’t know if they will move the event. I imagine they will. If they can’t, they may feel they have suffered damages and we will see how that turns out.”
Hondo is halfway between Uvalde and San Antonio. This was in the local paper today.
And I'm sure someone will think so and admonish me.
Look at it this way...law abiding citizens just got “punished”
You are missing something.
L
Consider yourself admonished. You can find cities, towns and villages within 800 miles of Uvalde ... the crime and coverup are the shooter, school, the school cops and the Uvalde cops, not the NRA or NRA members.
Name any leftist event that ever got cancelled because of “poor taste”.
Just one.
All funding for motor vehicle safety classes must be canceled for years after fatal road tantrum incidents. No raffles with vehicles as prizes will be allowed.
Clearly viewpoint discrimination and may be actionable. It is also likely that the organization had contracts with 3rd party vendors that will be hurt and/or Friend of NRA will not get back their deposits.
This could cost the town dearly in litigation and possibly a court order to force them to allow the event.
Why? What has the NRA to do with the events in Uvalde?
Yeah, different school district, different town, different county.
“Well, it’s too soon.” So is next year all right, then? How about 2 years? 10? 50? You start drawing lines, when do you stop?
This is pure propaganda, conflating a charity fundraiser with mass murder, for no reason.
This is what insanity looks like.
As an NRA member, this makes zero sense to me.
Neither I, nor any NRA member have responsibility for the actions of a deranged killer in Uvalde, TX.
This is virtue signaling of the worst kind.
So Hondo TX cancels an NRA event because a gun was used?
And along the same twist of logic, Hernandez will ask San Antonio to close all car dealers and used car lots whenever there is a fatal car crash in the area.
It was six weeks ago.
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