Guns won’t be allowed when Vice President Mike Pence speaks Friday at a National Rifle Association convention in Dallas in order to protect his safety.
The NRA says the Secret Service ordered the ban, but survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting are calling the move hypocritical, noting the organization’s fierce opposition to gun-free zones in most public places.
No firearms or weapons of any kind will be allowed at the NRA Leadership Conference at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center in Dallas, Texas, during Pence’s appearance, according to an NRA website. The notice emphasizes that the U.S. Secret Service is responsible for security at the conference, given Pence’s attendance.
The jurisdictional distinction didn’t impress some survivors of the Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., or some families of the 17 slain in the Feb. 14 attack. Many survivors and families have become activists seeking stricter gun laws.
The NRA wants “guns everywhere” when it comes to kids, Matt Deitsch, a Parkland student who helped organize the March for Our Lives rally in Washington, D.C., wrote on Twitter.
Wait wait wait wait wait wait you’re telling me to make the VP safe there aren’t any weapons around but when it comes to children they want guns everywhere? Can someone explain this to me? Because it sounds like the NRA wants to protect people who help them sell guns, not kids.
— Matt Deitsch (@MattxRed) 28 April 2018
The NRA, along with President Donald Trump, has called for arming teachers to deter future school shootings.