Vice President Pence is scheduled to speak at the annual NRA gathering in Dallas on Friday. (Karel Navarro/AP) 
 
 The National Rifle Association has championed the idea of “a good guy with a gun,” but no firearms will be allowed when Vice President Pence speaks at its annual meeting — sparking criticism from Parkland, Fla., students, who say schools should be afforded the same protection. 
 
 And in a rare occurrence, even some NRA supporters have voiced opposition to the prohibition. 
 
 Pence is scheduled to speak at the annual NRA gathering in Dallas on Friday, and many attendees will be packing guns, knives and other weapons for the event — which includes “more than 20 acres” of firearms exhibits expected to draw 80,000 members. 
 
 But the NRA said the U.S. Secret Service will coordinate security for the Pence speech and will not allow weapons in the arena while he is present. 
 
 “As a result, firearms and firearm accessories, knives or weapons of any kind will be prohibited in the forum prior to and during his attendance,” the NRA said. A detailed list of prohibited items includes ammunition, drones, gun parts, firearm magazines, as well as signs and glass containers. 
 
 With the exception of the Pence event, lawfully carried firearms will be permitted at the convention center and the host hotel, the NRA said, advising members to comply with federal, state and local laws. 
 
 [After Parkland shooting, NRA posts biggest fundraising haul in nearly 20 years] 
 
 The NRA is complying with laws that prohibit firearms from being brought into areas where Secret Service protectees visit, agency spokesman Shawn L. Holtzclaw told The Washington Post in a statement Sunday. That includes events in open-carry states such as Texas, he said. 
 
 “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 said. 
 
 Attendees were similarly restricted from carrying weapons during President Trump’s speech to the NRA in Atlanta last year. The president is expected to speak at the annual meeting on Friday, a White House official confirmed Monday. 
 
 The NRA, bolstered by Trump, has been a vocal proponent of allowing more guns in public places, including schools, but the exception for the convention has raised eyebrows and prompted skepticism among students and at least one parent who lost his child in the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 people were killed and others injured. 
 
 “On so many levels, this is enlightening. According to the NRA, we should want everyone to have weapons when we are in public,” Fred Guttenberg, father of slain Parkland student Jaime Guttenberg, said Sunday on Twitter. “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?” 
 
 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 
 
 The NRA did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Matt Deitsch, who graduated from the Parkland school in 2016 and is the chief strategist for the March for Our Lives protest, expressed similar skepticism. 
 
 “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?” Deitsch said Saturday on Twitter. “Because it sounds like the NRA wants to protect people who help them sell guns, not kids.” 
 
 March for Our Lives did not respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Parkland student Cameron Kasky said Saturday on Twitter: “The NRA has evolved into such a hilarious parody of itself.” David Hogg, a Parkland student, circulated a petition on Sunday calling on Pence to cancel his NRA appearance. 
 
 Some gun enthusiasts and apparent NRA members are displeased at the prohibition. At Texas CHL Forum, a message board for gun owners, commenters aired their frustrations. 
 
 “Obviously even republicans and so called leaders don’t trust the ‘good guys.’ I realize it’s the VP, but still makes our whole argument look foolish,” a commenter who self-identified as an NRA member said Thursday. 
 
 [A fake photo of Emma González went viral on the far right, where Parkland teens are villains] 
 
 “You may disagree … but in my opinion the very people that claim to protect the 2A should never host an event that requires disarming the good guys. Sad. No excuses for this … it makes us look stupid,” the commenter said. 
 
 Another self-identified NRA member agreed, saying Friday: “Me personally, I won’t be listening to him speak. I won’t be going anywhere that I cant carry my firearm. It’s essentially the nations largest get together for gun owners and they won’t let law abiding legal gun owners carry guns because someone who’s supposedly pro 2A thinks its too ‘dangerous’? thats liberal logic right there.” 
 
 Other users chimed in, saying the Secret Service is simply carrying out the law. 
 
 “Look at it this way, imagine what a prime opportunity it would be for some rabid gun hater to take a pot shot at the VP AT the NRA Annual Convention,” one commenter who self-identified as an NRA instructor said Saturday. “The campaign ads would write themselves.” 
 
 Kristine Phillips contributed to this report. 
 
 Read more: 
 
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 An off-duty Arkansas officer was killed after a stray bullet struck his home, police say ||||| Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Student Cameron Kasky addresses the March for Our Lives rally on March 24, 2018 in Washington, D.C. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images 
 
 Guns will be banned from the premises when Vice President Mike Pence speaks at a National Rifle Association convention in Dallas on Friday. Before and during the speech, attendees are prohibited from bringing “firearms and firearm accessories, knives or weapons of any kind,” the NRA wrote as it announced Pence’s presence at the conference. 
 
 The NRA is blaming the Secret Service for the prohibition but that didn’t stop survivors of the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, who were quick to criticize the organization’s apparent hypocrisy in giving in to demands for a gun-free area. 
 
 “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?” asked Matt Deitsch, a Parkland student who helped organize the March for Our Lives rally. “Can someone explain this to me?” 
 
 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 
 
 He was hardly alone. Cameron Kasky, another Parkland survivor noted on Twitter that the “NRA has evolved into such a hilarious parody of itself.” 
 
 The NRA has evolved into such a hilarious parody of itself. pic.twitter.com/6Pw6NTQAe6 — Cameron Kasky (@cameron_kasky) April 28, 2018 
 
 Fred Guttenberg, the father of 14-year-old Jaime Guttenberg, who was killed in the attack, also highlighted the ban, noting that “on so many levels, this is enlightening.” The NRA says “we should want everyone to have weapons … but when they put on a convention, the weapons are a concern?” ||||| The White House on Sunday vowed to help provide “rigorous firearms training” to some schoolteachers and formally endorsed a bill to tighten the federal background checks system, but it backed off President Trump’s earlier call to raise the minimum age to purchase some guns to 21 years old from 18 years old. 
 
 Responding directly to last month’s gun massacre at a Florida high school, the administration rolled out several policy proposals that focus largely on mental health and school safety initiatives. The idea of arming some teachers has been controversial and has drawn sharp opposition from the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers lobby, among other groups. Many of the student survivors have urged Washington to toughen restrictions on gun purchases, but such measures are fiercely opposed by the National Rifle Association, and the Trump plan does not include substantial changes to gun laws. 
 
 Rather, the president is establishing a Federal Commission on School Safety, to be chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, that will explore possible solutions, such as the age requirement for purchases, officials said. 
 
 In the face of criticism from Democratic lawmakers and gun control advocates that he had succumbed to political pressure from the NRA and other special-interest groups, Trump defended his plan in a series of tweets Monday morning. 
 
 “Very strong improvement and strengthening of background checks will be fully backed by White House. Legislation moving forward. Bump Stocks will soon be out. Highly trained expert teachers will be allowed to conceal carry, subject to State Law. Armed guards OK, deterrent!” Trump wrote. 
 
 Ten minutes later, he added: “On 18 to 21 Age Limits, watching court cases and rulings before acting. States are making this decision. Things are moving rapidly on this, but not much political support (to put it mildly).” 
 
 
 
 President Trump watches as Julia Cordover, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High student body president, speaks during a listening session on gun violence at the White House on Feb. 21. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images) 
 
 A third tweet asserted that if schools are declared gun-free zones “violence and danger are given an open invitation to enter.” 
 
 “Almost all school shootings are in gun free zones,” Trump wrote, without offering details to support the claim. “Cowards will only go where there is no deterrent!” 
 
 DeVos characterized the administration’s efforts as “a pragmatic plan to dramatically increase school safety.” 
 
 “We are committed to working quickly because there’s no time to waste,” she said on a conference call with reporters on Sunday evening. Invoking past mass school shootings, she continued, “No student, no family, no teacher and no school should have to live the horror of Parkland or Sandy Hook or Columbine again.” 
 
 The administration’s proposals come after 17 people were shot and killed last month at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., a massacre that spurred officials in Washington to reevaluate gun laws. 
 
 “The White House has taken tiny baby steps designed not to upset the NRA, when the gun violence epidemic in this country demands that giant steps be taken,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “Democrats in the Senate will push to go further including passing universal background checks, actual federal legislation on protection orders, and a debate on banning assault weapons.” 
 
 Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a statement that “President Trump has offered only drips of water in response to a five-alarm fire.” 
 
 Trump has said he was personally moved by the shooting — and by the persistent and impassioned calls for action from some of the teenage survivors as well as parents of the victims — and elevated the issue of school safety in his administration. He has called for raising the minimum age for purchasing an AR-15 or similar-style rifles from 18 to 21 years old. 
 
 “Now, this is not a popular thing to say, in terms of the NRA. But I’m saying it anyway,” Trump said in a Feb. 28 meeting with lawmakers. “You can buy a handgun — you can’t buy one; you have to wait until you’re 21. But you can buy the kind of weapon used in the school shooting at 18. I think it’s something you have to think about.” 
 
 But the White House plan released Sunday does not address the minimum age for gun purchases. Pressed by reporters about the apparent backtracking, a senior administration official said the age issue was “a state-based discussion right now” and would be explored by DeVos’s commission. 
 
 [‘I love this place.’ Trump campaigns for Pa. candidate but keeps spotlight on himself] 
 
 At a political rally Saturday night in Pennsylvania, Trump mocked the idea of commissions to solve the nation’s drug epidemic. “Do you think the drug dealers who kill thousands of people during their lifetime, do you think they care who’s on a blue-ribbon committee?” Trump said. “The only way to solve the drug problem is through toughness.” 
 
 Administration officials demurred Sunday night when asked why Trump found commissions an inadequate response to the drug epidemic but an appropriate way to respond to gun massacres. 
 
 “There are not going to be one-size-fits-all approaches and solutions, and I think that that is a very cogent argument for having a commission,” said a senior administration official, who would answer questions from reporters only on the condition of anonymity. 
 
 The centerpiece of the administration’s plan is Trump’s vow to “harden our schools against attack.” Since almost immediately after the Parkland shooting, the president has advocated arming some teachers as a solution to stopping future massacres. 
 
 “A gun-free zone to a maniac — because they’re all cowards — a gun-free zone is, let’s go in and let’s attack, because bullets aren’t coming back at us,” Trump said during a Feb. 22 listening session at the White House with teachers, students and parents. 
 
 The administration will start working with states to provide “rigorous firearms training” to teachers and other school personnel who volunteer to be armed, said Andrew Bremberg, director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. The White House has not proposed offering states new funding for this training. 
 
 Lily Eskelsen García, president of the NEA, the teachers lobby, said last month that “bringing more guns into our schools does nothing to protect our students and educators from gun violence. Our students need more books, art and music programs, nurses and school counselors; they do not need more guns in their classrooms.” 
 
 The NRA supports the idea of allowing armed teachers in schools. Bremberg said the administration is backing two pieces of legislation: A bipartisan bill by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) that is designed to improve the accuracy and effectiveness of the National Instant Criminal Background Check System; and the STOP School Violence Act, which would authorize state-based grants to implement violence prevention training for teachers and students. 
 
 The administration also is urging all states to pass risk-protection orders, as Florida recently did, allowing law enforcement officers to remove firearms from individuals who are considered a threat to themselves or others and to prevent them from purchasing new guns, Bremberg said. 
 
 Lastly, the administration wants to better integrate mental health, primary care and family services programs, and the president has ordered a full audit and review of the FBI tip line, he said. The FBI has said it ignored a warning that 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz might attack a school just weeks before he allegedly carried out the rampage in Parkland. 
 
 “The president is determined to get to the root of the various societal issues that lead to violence in our country,” Bremberg said. “No stone will be unturned.” 
 
 At the Justice Department, meanwhile, Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Saturday took an incremental step toward banning “bump stocks,” devices that can make semiautomatic weapons fire like fully automatic firearms. 
 
 Sessions submitted to the Office of Management and Budget a proposed regulation on bump stocks. The proposal still requires that office’s approval, and once that is complete, it must be published and public comments considered before it becomes reality. 
 
 While some gun-control advocates welcomed the move, others argued that it would be better for Congress to pass legislation banning the devices. Federal officials had in years past concluded that they could not legally regulate bump stocks, and the new move to do so is likely to be met with lawsuits from manufacturers of the devices. The NRA does not oppose regulating bump stocks under existing law, but it does object to new legislation. 
 
 In Florida, Gov. Rick Scott (R) defied the NRA on Friday by signing into law a new set of gun regulations that imposes a three-day waiting period for most purchases of long guns, raises the minimum age for buying those weapons to 21 and bans the possession of bump stocks. 
 
 “I am going to do what I think are common-sense solutions,” Scott said after the signing. “I think this is the beginning. There is now going to be a real conversation about how we make our schools safe.” 
 
 [Florida Gov. Rick Scott breaks with NRA to sign new gun regulations] 
 
 The new Florida restrictions have drawn opposition from some Republicans nationally. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he does not support raising the age to purchase long guns, such as AR-15-style rifles, which have been used in many of the recent mass shootings. 
 
 “We send our sons and daughters over to Afghanistan, in Iraq,” at age 18, Johnson said. “They defend our freedoms. I think if they do that, they ought to be able to buy a hunting rifle.” 
 
 Trump has vacillated in his public pronouncements about guns. He and GOP leaders in Congress have been afraid to cross the NRA ahead of the November midterm elections because the gun lobby has long been a powerful force mobilizing conservative activists in elections. 
 
 At his Feb. 28 meeting with lawmakers, Trump sounded open to new restrictions on gun purchases. “Take the guns first, go through due process second,” he said, winning the approval of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) and other Democrats who have long sought to toughen gun laws and ban semiautomatic assault rifles. 
 
 But NRA leaders then met privately with Trump, and the president had an apparent change of heart and backed off more-restrictive proposals. Last week, Trump met in the Oval Office with Kyle Kashuv, a Stoneman Douglas student who has become one of his school’s few pro-gun-rights activists with his frequent appearances on Fox News Channel. 
 
 Matt Zapotosky and Brian Murphy contributed to this report. ||||| After a week of media silence following the school shooting in Florida, the National Rifle Association has gone on the offensive in its first public response to the massacre, pushing back against law enforcement officials, the media, gun-control advocates and calls for stricter gun laws from the teenage survivors of the attack. 
 
 The gun rights group — a powerful force in American politics — used speeches and videos to try to blunt an emotionally charged wave of calls for new gun restrictions since a gunman armed with an AR-15 rifle killed 17 people at a Parkland, Fla., high school. As the teens who escaped the bloodshed have passionately campaigned for new laws, it appears the politics around the fraught issue of gun control are shifting, with President Trump and some conservative lawmakers expressing a willingness to consider at least modest measures. 
 
 While the NRA initially held back from the fray, that changed as a spokeswoman debated survivors of the attack during a heated town hall and then Wayne LaPierre, the group’s chief executive, forcefully decried gun-control advocates and the media for its coverage of the shooting. 
 
 [Florida high school students demand change to gun laws at boisterous rally] 
 
 “They don’t care about our schoolchildren,” LaPierre said Thursday morning near the start of the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md. “They want to make all of us less free.” 
 
 LaPierre also restated his belief that more armed security would stop school shootings, echoing Trump, while calling on parents and local authorities to beef up security on campuses. Later in the day, the Broward County Sheriff acknowledged that an armed and uniformed deputy who was assigned to the Florida school did not enter the building while the attack was happening last week, taking a defensive position outside; the deputy, who was suspended, has since resigned. 
 
 “Evil walks among us,” LaPierre said. “And God help us if we don’t harden our schools and protect our kids.” 
 
 LaPierre’s speech came on the heels of the NRA releasing a video claiming that “the mainstream media love mass shootings.” The video argued that members of the media benefit from covering mass shootings and use them “to juice their ratings and push their agenda.” 
 
 [Teachers: What do you think of President Trump’s proposal to arm some teachers in the classroom?] 
 
 Since the rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, media coverage has been dominated by the attack’s survivors, who responded with a push of furious activism unseen after previous mass shootings. Teenagers who hid in closets and ran for their lives quickly began calling for increased gun control, assailing the NRA and organizing around their message. 
 
 The survivors called for new gun restrictions in a rally Wednesday in Tallahassee, the Florida capital, and then reiterated the pleas that night at a town hall hosted by CNN and attended by lawmakers and Dana Loesch, an NRA spokeswoman. 
 
 Loesch, speaking Thursday before LaPierre, echoed the NRA’s advertisement and castigated the news media with racially charged remarks. 
 
 “Many in legacy media love mass shootings,” Loesch said. “I’m not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold.” 
 
 [Dana Loesch, the NRA’s brash spokeswoman, dials back the rage at CNN town hall] 
 
 Loesch questioned why there was a nationally televised town hall after one of the deadliest mass shootings in modern American history but no similar event for “thousands of grieving black mothers in Chicago every weekend.” 
 
 During her appearance the previous night, Loesch sought to direct the discussion toward who should be able to obtain firearms, highlighting numerous red flags in the alleged gunman’s past, including concerns from school officials and a warning ignored by the FBI. 
 
 Israel — who has said his agency is reviewing its prior interactions with the shooter as well as its response to the attack — said more armed officers alone would not solve the problems revealed by the Douglas shooting, but he announced plans to send deputies with rifles to police the county’s schools. 
 
 The alleged shooter had no criminal record and was able to purchase his guns legally, officials said. Loesch sharply questioned how law enforcement had handled warnings about the suspect and criticized what she called “flawed” background check systems. 
 
 “I don’t believe that this insane monster should have ever been able to obtain a firearm,” Loesch said during the forum Wednesday night. “This individual was nuts.” 
 
 Speaking the following morning, Loesch also said she condemned those at the FBI who fumbled warnings about the shooter. “The government has proven it cannot keep you safe,” she said. 
 
 David Bowdich, acting deputy director of the FBI, said Thursday that he was concerned about his agency’s public standing. 
 
 “When I look through the prism of risk for our organization, I find the number one risk for our organization is losing the faith and confidence of the American people,” Bowdich said in response to a question about attacks on the bureau, including those by the NRA. 
 
 Critics of the NRA dismissed its comments, which Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called “pathetic, out of touch ideas.” Some gun-control groups also questioned why the NRA was being given such a prominent platform in the debate, both by CNN and in Trump’s remarks. 
 
 “I am so outraged that the NRA is being given a seat at the table, whether its by the media or by the president,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, an advocacy group seeking gun-control changes. “We’re acting as though lobbyists have a right to have a say, or to help us write our nation’s gun policies. They don’t.” 
 
 She also attributed the NRA’s push to put more guns in schools as a way to increase firearms sales, noting that gun sales have fallen under Trump. Under Obama, amid fears that his administration would seek more gun restrictions, these sales reached record highs. 
 
 Much like Loesch’s remarks, LaPierre’s speech went beyond the gun debate to touch on other politically charged issues. LaPierre, whose confrontational remarks have become a CPAC tradition, mentioned “rogue leadership” at the FBI, warned of “European socialists” in the Democratic Party, invoked illegal immigration and referenced the opioid epidemic. 
 
 LaPierre said he was “horrified” by the Parkland tragedy, criticizing what he called “opportunists” who would “exploit tragedy for political gain.” He invoked his own comment following the 2012 massacre of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., saying Thursday that “to stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun.” 
 
 During his speech, LaPierre decried schools as “gun-free zones,” though Douglas had an armed officer on the campus at the time of the attack — who Israel has said did not enter the building or confront the shooter as people were being killed. LaPierre questioned why more armed protection was afforded to everything from banks and jewelry stores to movie stars, professional sports games and politicians. 
 
 Shortly before LaPierre spoke, Trump tweeted a message of support for him and others at the NRA as “Great People and Great American Patriots” who he said would “do the right thing.” 
 
 What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2018 
 
 Trump has also echoed the NRA in calling for more armed security at schools and emphasized the idea of arming teachers as a way to deter future attacks. Trump has publicly and privately floated actions that would be at odds with some positions of the NRA — a group that heavily backed him during his campaign for the presidency — including suggesting that the age for purchasing assault rifles be raised from 18 to 21. 
 
 “Legislative proposals that prevent law-abiding adults aged 18-20 years old from acquiring rifles and shotguns effectively prohibits them for purchasing any firearm, thus depriving them of their constitutional right to self-protection,” Jennifer Baker, a spokeswoman for the group, said in a statement. 
 
 The alleged shooter in South Florida had purchased at least 10 guns, all rifles and shotguns, including the AR-15 used in the massacre, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the probe. 
 
 Grover Norquist, a member of the NRA’s board, said he supports gun-purchase restrictions on those who are adjudicated as dangers to themselves and those who are violent felons, but he said he opposes raining the gun ownership age. 
 
 “I am opposed to infantalizing teenagers,” Norquist said. “The guys on the left believe that treating people as children who are eligible to vote and join the military makes sense. I take the view that restricting people as children who are 18, 19, 20 years old is not helpful. I think it is a bad idea to treat adults as children.” 
 
 In Florida, a day after high school students swamped the state capital to rally for new gun restrictions, Republican lawmakers were expected to release legislative language Thursday or Friday with proposals responding to Parkland. The bills are expected to include at least one provision increasing in the minimum age for purchasing semiautomatic rifles to 21. 
 
 Republican Sen. Bill Galvano, the next Senate president who has long supported the NRA’s legislative priorities, is leading the effort in his body, and he said the NRA’s opposition to raising the age limit was unlikely to defeat the bill. 
 
 “It doesn’t complicate my efforts,” he said Thursday. “I think the desire to act and do something meaningful right now seems to be what’s going to win the day.” 
 
 Michael Scherer, in Tallahassee, and Matt Zapotosky and Tom Hamburger contributed to this report, which has been updated. 
 
 Further reading: 
 
 How a survivor of the Florida school shooting became the victim of an online conspiracy 
 
 The NRA once believed in gun control and had a leader who pushed for it
– National Rifle Association members have been told they won't be allowed to pack heat when Mike Pence speaks at its national convention this week—and the irony was not lost on Parkland school shooting survivors, among others. "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?” tweeted former student Matt Deitsch, who helped organize the March for Our Lives rallies. The NRA says "firearms and firearm accessories, knives, or weapons of any kind will be prohibited in the forum" during the vice president's Friday appearance at the Dallas event because of Secret Service regulations, Slate reports. An NRA spokesman tells the Washington Post that even in open-carry states like Texas, it is against the law to bring firearms into areas being visited by Secret Service protectees. Parkland student David Hogg has circulated a petition that urges Pence to cancel the appearance, calling it a "slap in the face" to Americans hurting from gun violence. A similar gun ban was in place when President Trump spoke at the NRA's convention in Atlanta last year. The Hill reports that White House officials have confirmed that Trump also plans to speak at this year's convention, which is being held from Thursday to Sunday and will feature more than 20 acres of firearms exhibits, according to organizers. (In his 2016 speech to the convention, Trump promised to ban gun-free zones nationwide if elected.)