Earlier this week, Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway suggested that the National Rifle Association find a site other than Dallas' Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center for its national convention, and since then, he's received alarming messages and threats, he said.

Though he didn't offer specifics, he said some of the threats were menacing — vulgar and tougher than the threats council members received after the removal of Dallas' Robert E. Lee statue.

"It just goes to show that there are sick people in the world," Caraway said. But, he added, some of that comes with the territory of being a council member.

Not all the threats were worrisome; some he called "kind of entertaining, to be honest."

Caraway suggested the NRA move its annual event in the wake of the fatal shooting of 17 students, teachers and staff at a school in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.

The NRA has said that "no politician anywhere can tell the NRA not to come to their city."

The group's meeting in May is scheduled to include firearms displays and exhibits, and the group's national elected officials will participate in leadership meetings. According to the website, ammunition sales are permitted, but on-site firearm sales are not.

Caraway said he hoped his position would ultimately prompt dialogue between the organization and those who favor better gun control measures, asking that government officials take part "not as Republicans or Democrats, but get to the table as citizens."

Caraway said it's time to re-examine some 200-year-old laws and "tweak" them so they make more sense in today's society.

"A child's life is worth more than a hundred million dollars," he told TMZ in an interview published online Wednesday. "It's not the money we're dealing with now — it's the future of these kids. Those kids in Florida — guess what, those that are the survivors, they have to live with this mental anguish of bullets crossing their heads, and screaming for their lives, the rest of their lives. Sometimes you have to take on Goliath just to begin the conversation."

These are not the first threats Caraway has received. In 2014, the Dallas Police Department assigned a sergeant to guard the council member for six months after receiving an undisclosed threat against him.

Caraway said that he has not forwarded the most recent threats to the Dallas Police Department.