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:

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.