A former NRA president and gun rights advocate both unknowingly delivered commencement speeches to a field of 3,044 empty chairs at a fake high school graduation that represented children who died from gun violence before they could graduate, according to The Hill.
Videos show former NRA President and current board member David Keene and author and gun rights activist John Lott delivering addresses to a Las Vegas-area high school named James Madison Academy, which does not exist.
Keene told the graduating class to fight those implementing stricter gun laws.
“This year, you focused on one of the most important of Madison’s amendments, the Second Amendment,” he said. “There are some who continue to fight to gut the Second Amendment, but I’d be willing to bet that many of you will be among those who stand up and prevent them from succeeding.”
“An overwhelming majority of you will go on to college, while others may decide their dream dictates a different route to success,” said Keene. “My advice to you is simple enough: follow your dream and make it a reality.”
Lott, the author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” told the students during his speech, “Your school is named after James Madison, and he proposed what became the Second Amendment to the Constitution, that there’s an individual right for people to be able to keep guns for protection.”
“Gun control advocates and Democrats will fight you tooth and nail,” Lott said during his speech, which is also played in the Wednesday video alongside 911 calls. “They want to go and say we’ve stopped 3.5 million dangerous people. I look at it as we’ve stopped 3.5 million law-abiding citizens who wanted to get a gun.”
According to BuzzFeed, the men were told that they were delivering their speeches at a rehearsal for the graduation. They were later told the ceremony was cancelled.
Lott was surprise to find out he was duped when contacted by BuzzFeed.
“You’re telling me the whole thing was a setup?” said Lott. “No, I didn’t know that.”
The speeches were organized by the group Change the Ref, which was founded by Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose son Joaquin was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018.
“Ironically, had the men conducted a proper background check on the school, they would have seen that the school is fake,” a Change the Ref spokesperson said in a press release.