Donald Trump danced at a National Rifle Association (NRA) convention after reading out the names of children killed in the Texas school shooting.
The former President danced to Sam and Dave's 1966 song Hold On, I'm Comin' at the end of his provocative speech in Houston.
During his address, he read out the names of the 21 victims of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and called for teachers to be armed to prevent further massacres.
Critics shared their outrage at both Trump's 'disingenuous' proposals to prevent future shootings and his inappropriate dancing at the end of the speech.
Democrat strategist Adam Parkhomenko tweeted: "Trump danced at the NRA convention. Their little bodies aren’t even in the ground. And he’s f*****g dancing."
Andrew Stroehlein, the European media director of Human Rights Watch, added: "The bodies of the children shot dead in #Uvalde aren’t even buried yet, and Trump is dancing at an NRA gun celebration."
Paul Castro, the head of a Texan school whose son was shot dead in a road rage incident, slammed Trump's proposals to prevent further shootings, branding them 'disingenuous' and 'hypocritical'.
Mr Castro, superintendent of A+UP Charter School in Houston, told the Texas Tribune: "It makes me mad at the same politicians saying the same thing that they have been saying since (the) Columbine (school shooting)."
He said limiting school entrances and arming teachers would be laughable - if the topic was not so significant.
He added: “Armed police were on the premises and didn't go in and now you want Miss Smith in elementary school to take a shot?
“It’s disingenuous and a lie and it stops politicians from taking responsibility. It is hypocrisy at its worst.”
Thousands of protesters gathered outside the George R Brown Convention Center, where the NRA convention was held, to call for greater gun control in the wake of the mass shooting.
Donna Howard, a Democrat in the Texas House of Representatives, said: "Does he (Trump) not understand that trained and armed law enforcement weren’t able to protect the kids? But teachers should? We need real solutions."
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers union, rejected suggestions that teachers be armed to thwart future shootings.
"More guns equal more violence. Assault weapons should be banned," she said.
Johnny Mata, a representative of the advocacy group Greater Houston Coalition for Justice, called on the NRA to halt the convention and hold a memorial service for the Uvalde victims.
He said: "They have the audacity not to cancel in respect of these families."
Mr Mata added that the NRA should "quit being a part of the assassination of children in American schools".
Trump repeated the NRA's oft-used mantra that 'the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun' during his speech at the conference on Friday.
He said: "The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens."
A bell tolled every time Trump read one of the names of the 19 children and two teachers killed at Robb Elementary School on May 24.
He added that the gunman, Salvador Ramos, who was shot dead by a Border Patrol agent, will be eternally damned to burn in the fires of hell over the massacre.
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The former President also called for every school to have a single point of entry, strong fencing, metal detectors and a police official or an armed guard at all times.
He added: "This is not a matter of money. This is a matter of will. If the United States has $40 billion to send to Ukraine, we can do this."
Starting from around 11.30am on May 24, Ramos massacred innocent children aged between nine and 11, as hero teachers sacrificed themselves to save their pupils at the school.
The 18-year-old gunman was in the school for up to an hour before he was finally killed by a Border Patrol agent.
It was the the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook almost a decade ago.
