A mile-long fleet of 52 yellow school buses travelled to Ted Cruz‘s Texas home on Thursday morning in the hopes of delivering the Republican senator a strong message about gun violence in the U.S.
The school buses contained 4,368 empty seats, the same number of children killed in firearm-related incidents since 2020, according to an examination of available Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mortality data.
Onboard the school buses were also several personal items belonging to school shooting victims.
BuzzFeed News reported that among the items were beat-up checkered Vans (worn by Gracie Muehlberger, 15, killed at her Santa Clarita, Calif., high school in 2019), a smiling stuffed animal (belonging to Chase Kowalski, 7, killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012) and a LeBron James Miami Heat jersey (favoured by Joaquin Oliver, 17, killed in the Parkland, Fla., shooting in 2018).
The mobile art installation and activism project is called “The NRA Children’s Museum.” Joaquin’s father, Manuel Oliver, is the creator.
Oliver has been a prominent activist for gun reform since his son’s death. On Monday, he interrupted U.S. President Joe Biden during a speech celebrating new legislation aimed at preventing school shootings.
Oliver told BuzzFeed News the NRA Children’s Museum will target politicians who are “not loyal to the Second Amendment,” but rather are loyal to “the gun industry and manufacturers, who protect them.”
The school buses were sent to Cruz’s residence because the senator reportedly accepted US$749,317 in donations from pro-gun groups throughout his political career, according to Open Secrets, a nonprofit group created to “track the flow of money in American politics.”
After arriving at Cruz’s property, Oliver, his team and their school buses were met by security.
Oliver and his wife, Patricia Oliver, delivered a letter written by their son when he was 12. The letter is addressed to a “U.S. gun owner” and calls for stricter gun laws and background checks.
The Oliver parents discovered the letter a month after Joaquin was killed in Parkland.
A security guard on Cruz’s property accepted the letter.
Shortly afterward, the procession of buses left the senator’s home “due to encircling police presence,” BuzzFeed News reported.
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The bus fleet also travelled to Cruz’s office, but Oliver was told the senator was at the Capitol.
Oliver told BuzzFeed News that gun violence in the country is “a shame on us as a nation.”
He also revealed that the NRA Children’s Museum would be travelling to visit several more pro-gun politicians this year.
“If you’re a senator and you believe the things that are happening are OK, look out for a yellow school bus that will be outside your office,” he said.
As of this writing, there have been 322 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2022 alone, according to data collected by the Gun Violence Archive.
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