{"id":217153,"date":"2021-06-25T16:24:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-25T16:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/radiofree.asia\/?guid=d824ed95da604858a987b41310fdbd63"},"modified":"2021-06-25T16:24:18","modified_gmt":"2021-06-25T16:24:18","slug":"meet-the-dad-who-tricked-ex-nra-head-into-graduation-speech-for-empty-chairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/06\/25\/meet-the-dad-who-tricked-ex-nra-head-into-graduation-speech-for-empty-chairs\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Dad Who Tricked Ex-NRA Head Into \u201cGraduation Speech\u201d for Empty Chairs"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/video\/meet-the-dad-who-tricked-ex-nra-head-into-graduation-speech-for-empty-chairs\/\"><img width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/seg3-Keene-chairs-200x113.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"x-NRA Head Tricked into Addressing 3,044 Empty Chairs for Gun Violence Victims\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/seg3-Keene-chairs-200x113.jpg 200w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/seg3-Keene-chairs-400x225.jpg 400w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/seg3-Keene-chairs-1200x675.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/seg3-Keene-chairs-800x450.jpg 800w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/seg3-Keene-chairs-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/seg3-Keene-chairs.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><aside class=\"introtext\">Image Credit: Change the Ref<\/aside>\n<p>The parents of a student killed in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School duped a former president of the National Rifle Association into giving a high school graduation speech defending gun rights in front of 3,044 empty white chairs \u2014 one chair for each student who could not graduate this year because they were killed by gun violence. David Keene, who still serves on the <span class=\"caps\">NRA<\/span> board, thought he was giving a rehearsal speech for graduating students at the James Madison Academy in Las Vegas, but no such school exists. Video of the speech was turned into a viral video promoting universal background checks. The stunt was organized by the group Change the Ref, which was founded by Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose son Joaquin was shot dead in the Parkland, Florida, massacre. Manuel Oliver says the video has led to an outpouring of support from across the U.S. \u201cWe need to do these more often, because it shows that the <span class=\"caps\">NRA<\/span>, the gun industry and the gun lobby are not as powerful as they say,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p><em>Please check back later for full transcript.<\/em><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/video\/meet-the-dad-who-tricked-ex-nra-head-into-graduation-speech-for-empty-chairs\/\">Latest \u2013 Truthout<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/video\/meet-the-dad-who-tricked-ex-nra-head-into-graduation-speech-for-empty-chairs\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"200\" height=\"113\" src=\"https:\/\/truthout.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/seg3-Keene-chairs-200x113.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"x-NRA Head Tricked into Addressing 3,044 Empty Chairs for Gun Violence Victims\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">Each of the 3,044 empty chairs represented a student killed by gun violence who could not graduate this year.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1462,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30665,30590,4964,463,15056],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1462"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":217562,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217153\/revisions\/217562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}