A gun safety group duped a former NRA board member and a lobbyist for the gun industry to give graduation speeches to 3,044 empty chairs in a Las Vegas field–one seat for every student who would have graduated this year if they had not been killed in gun violence.
As NBC News reports, NRA board member and former president David Keene and gun advocate John Lott, Jr. were told they would be addressing the graduates of James Madison Academy, a fictional school, where they would be awarded for defending the Constitution.
Keene told the empty chairs, “Follow your dream and make it a reality. Never for a minute doubt that you can achieve that dream.”
The group Change the Ref, founded by Manuel and Patricia Oliver the parents of Joaquin Oliver, who was killed in the Parkland shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and teachers were killed.
Lott and Keene were filmed as they practiced their speeches. They were later told that the graduation ceremony was canceled because of a credible threat of violence.