The parents of a student killed in the 2018 Parkland high school shooting tricked a former president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) into delivering a speech in front of thousands of chairs that represented victims of school gun violence.
David Keene was president of the NRA from 2011 - 2013. He thought he was practicing his speech to the graduates of James Madison Academy, a fictional school.
But he was invited to Las Vegas to speak in front of 3,044 empty chairs by Patricia and Manuel Oliver, co-founders of the gun safety organization Change the Ref. Their son Joaquin Oliver was killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018.
Change the Ref used clips from Keene's address, along with clips from another speaker they invited to the fake graduation, author and gun rights activist John Lott, in a three-part video series titled "Lost Class" that featured footage of the empty chairs mixed with audio from 911 calls made by students, and the sound of gunfire.
