With Texas NRA appearance, NC’s Mark Robinson shows again that he’s all about himself
This weekend, the National Rifle Association is holding its annual meeting in Houston, a three-day spectacle where gun rights advocates will “celebrate freedom, firearms and the Second Amendment.”
Among the distinguished guests is none other than North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
Meanwhile, a mere four-hour drive away, a community is still reeling from the deadliest school shooting since 2012. Just three days ago, 19 children and two of their teachers were shot and killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. They were fourth graders, senselessly robbed of the precious lives that 9- and 10-year-olds should be living: learning, laughing, dreaming of a future full of possibilities.
After Tuesday’s shooting, several other speakers, including the governor and lieutenant governor of Texas, had the sense to cancel their scheduled appearances at the NRA’s event. Robinson, never one to pass up an opportunity to call attention to himself, did not.
Robinson is a member of the NRA’s national board of directors, according to the convention website. He appeared at a leadership forum Friday alongside former President Donald Trump and several other Republican politicians, and he is listed as the keynote speaker for Sunday’s “national prayer breakfast.”
Robinson’s choice not to cancel his appearance is despicable, but not surprising. It’s yet another example of the kind of moral bankruptcy one has come to expect from our lieutenant governor, who seems to abide by the philosophy that even the worst optics will inevitably boost his political profile.
He waged a loud but fruitless campaign to root out “indoctrination” in public schools, even as his own investigation found that no such thing really exists. He regularly travels to churches across North Carolina to deliver hate-filled sermons that disparage everyone from women to Democrats and LGBTQ+ people.
Earlier this month — less than 24 hours after 10 people were killed in a racist massacre in Buffalo, N.Y. — Robinson even bragged about owning assault weapons.
“I’ll tell anybody, I got them AR-15s at home and I like to go target shooting and all that. That’s not what they’re there for,” Robinson boasted during a sermon in Nash County on May 15. “I’m not ashamed to say it, I’m probably not supposed to say it, but I’m gonna say it anyway — I got them AR-15s in case the government gets too big for its britches.”
To him, it’s a winning strategy. After Robinson received national attention last year for a speech in which he likened being gay or transgender to “filth,” his campaign received the most donations it had all year.
Robinson has always been a vocal supporter of the Second Amendment. It’s how he first made a name for himself in 2018, when a speech he made in favor of gun rights at a Greensboro City Council meeting went viral, racking up millions of views. It allowed him to rise within the ranks of the NRA, who made a commercial out of his speech. Just a few years later, he became the highest-ranking Republican in the state.
In a statement this week, Robinson called the shooting in Uvalde “evil,” telling the families of the victims “we are praying for you, and we grieve with you.”
How hollow and hypocritical.
While North Carolinians are shaken and horrified at what happened in Texas, Robinson, who says he wants to run for governor in 2024, is showing us exactly where he stands. Let this be a preview of the kind of leader he would be: embarrassing, self-serving and shameful, even in the wake of a tragedy when leadership is needed more than ever.
