Global Courant 2023-04-15 09:22:32
Former US Vice President Mike Pence was booed at the annual meeting of the largest gun rights lobby in the United States, even as he tried to present himself as a more staunch advocate of gun rights than his former boss Donald Trump.
Pence and Trump were among the top Republican candidates for the 2024 presidential race at the three-day meeting of the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Indianapolis, and both vowed to defend the right of Americans to bear arms at all costs.
The NRA’s most fervent members meet just days after mass shootings at a Nashville school and a Louisville bank that killed 11 people, including children. Last year’s convention followed the attack on a primary school in Uvalde that left 19 children dead.
Anger echoed through the conference room as Pence, a former Indiana governor, took the stage to deliver his speech indicating that he will likely have an uphill battle if he decides to run against Trump for the Republican nomination.
Many Trump supporters have soured Pence for refusing to support the former president’s false claims of widespread electoral fraud in the 2020 presidential election and to reverse Trump’s election loss in his former capacity as president of the US Senate.
“I love you too,” Pence joked to the hundreds in attendance, many of whom wore Trump-themed T-shirts and red baseball caps.
Pence, who has a “gold-plated rating” from the gun lobby for his stance on gun rights, called for armed officers in all schools and faster executions of gunmen.
“I believe the time has come to institute a federal death penalty, with an expedited appeal, to ensure that those involved in mass shootings are executed in months, not years,” Pence said.
The NRA convention comes just days after mass shootings in Nashville and Louisville that killed 11 people, including children (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)
Trump, meanwhile, used the forum to proclaim himself “the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president” in the country’s history.
“I will once again be your loyal friend and fearless champion as the 47th President of the United States,” Trump pledged, revealing plans to issue a tax credit to reimburse teachers who receive concealed carry weapons and receive training “of highly qualified experts”.
Give in to the extreme
The conference takes place at a key moment in the Republican presidential campaign.
Pence and a number of other hopefuls, including Trump’s closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, are deciding whether to jump into the 2024 race to challenge the former president for the nomination.
DeSantis, Senator Tim Scott and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley addressed the NRA by video message.
DeSantis, who has not yet confirmed his participation, praised a recent Florida law that allows residents to carry a concealed firearm without a permit.
“Thanks to our efforts in Florida, we now have a majority of states in this country that recognize such a right,” he said.
Former Vice President Mike Pence booed as he took the stage at the gun lobby’s annual meeting (Chris Bergin/Reuters)
The parade of prominent politicians shows that the NRA event remains a rite of passage for Republican hopefuls, despite allegations of corruption and legal trouble facing the group, as well as media reports of dwindling membership.
“Politicians who hate guns should never go to bed without fear of what this association, and all of our millions of members, can do with their political careers,” NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre told the Associated Press news agency.
Richard Feldman, a member and former NRA lobbyist, said he expected the gun group to eventually support Trump because its most outspoken membership base — which draws heavily from a white, rural, and male subgroup — still supports him.
“The NRA is still the granddaddy of the gun lobby. The NRA-approved candidate in a Republican primary is very important,” he told Reuters news agency.
Even if the NRA backs Trump, some reports say the group, facing a major New York lawsuit and declining revenues, is unlikely to provide the same financial support it has offered in previous elections.
Spending is already down: The NRA spent about $54.4 million during the 2016 election, including $31.2 million for Trump’s campaign, but that dropped to $29.1 million in the 2020 cycle, the most of it for Trump’s campaign, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan investigative organization that tracks US advocacy dollars.
The gun rights lobby is also under pressure from at least 149 mass shootings across the country since the start of the year.
“Republican primary hopefuls are descending on Indianapolis to give in to the extreme leaders of the NRA for support that will be poison in a general election,” said Shannon Watts, founder of gun control group Moms Demand Action.
President Joe Biden’s administration, which has tightened gun laws, said Friday the NRA should focus on the “high number of children” killed by guns, rather than opposing “common sense” measures that could kill lives. to rescue.
