TELFORD, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — While gun raffles and silent auctions were conducted inside the Franconia Heritage Banquet and Conference Center Thursday night, dozens stood outside in the rain protesting the event’s message.
In the wake of last week’s deadly school massacre in Uvalde, Texas, and the most recent mass shooting in a Tulsa hospital, a Friends of the NRA banquet took place in Telford, Montgomery County, drawing many unhappy community members who rallied against assault rifles and for gun safety laws.
A sign on the door of the banquet hall read “no media.”
Richard Detwiler from Souderton stood in the rain across the street.
“I find deeply and kind of disturbing and ironic that it would take place, No. 1, so soon after a very recent school shooting, and No. 2, it’s taking place at the Franconia Heritage restaurant in the heart of Franconia Township, whose heritage is really one of Pennsylvania German Mennonite — peace, church, non-violence and no-guns culture,” he said.
He stood alongside others holding signs that read messages like, “protect kids, not lobbyists,” and “freedom from gun violence.”
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Natalie Cimonetti from Telford, one of the organizers of the protest, wants to see a ban on assault weapons.
“The old cliche: Enough is enough,” she said. “We’ve had enough and we are tired of having our children die for the gun lobby profits.”
The Uvalde shooting, which claimed the lives of 19 fourth graders, was especially resonant for Cimonetti.
“My son is in fourth grade at the elementary school down the road,” she said. “I could literally walk there from here. So when I found out they were doing this [NRA event], I was like, this is disgusting, this is gross. I can’t believe they didn’t cancel it.”
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“All I can think of is children saying the Pledge of Allegiance to their country in the morning, and then later, getting slaughtered like little lambs,” added retired teacher Diana Gehman from Barto, Berks County.
“We contact our senators, our congressmen. We write letters. We donate money. And it stays the same since Sandy Hook.”
Security outside the NRA banquet told KYW Newsradio that event organizers had no comment.