NRA Prohibits Members From Bringing Guns to Mike Pence Speaking Event

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Vice President Pence will be delivering a speech at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting this Friday, and because law dictates that his life is apparently more important than everyone else’s, the association has banned members from bringing firearms, knives, and all sorts of other weapons to his speaking engagement.

Attendees will be free to carry their guns, knives, mace, lasers, drones, and other weapons in other locations at the event, just not where Pence will be talking. Specifically, they’ll be able to tote these items at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and the Omni Dallas Hotel.

According to Shawn L. Holtzclaw, a spokesman for the Secret Service, the NRA is adhering to a law that states firearms can’t be in the presence of a person under the agency’s protection. This applies even in open-carry states like Texas, where the event is set to take place.

“Individuals determined to be carrying firearms will not be allowed past a predetermined outer perimeter checkpoint, regardless of whether they possess a ticket to the event,” Holtzclaw told the Washington Post.

Still, regardless of the fact that the NRA has made this decision for legal reasons, the fact that a politician who has pushed anti-gun control measures throughout his career is being protected by a rule banning guns from his vicinity is rich. At an event all about promoting gun ownership, no less.

Several survivors of the Parkland mass shooting took to Twitter to point out the hypocrisy of the situation:

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) April 28, 2018

On so many levels, this is enlightening. According to the NRA, we should want everyone to have weapons when we are in public. But when they put on a convention, the weapons are a concern? I thought giving everyone a gun was to enhance safety. Am I missing something? https://t.co/f4wgNhJ7RI

— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) April 28, 2018

It’d be interesting to hear how Pence feels about being protected from the weapons he insists shouldn’t be banned. Somehow, given his long track record of being a hypocrite, the notion that he has a problem with the extra safety he’s being given seems unlikely.