The National Rifle Association is holding its annual convention in Indianapolis this weekend, the third time since 2014 the gathering has been held there. In a sign that the political season is upon us, the NRA convention will feature every politician mentioned as a possible presidential candidate.
Donald Trump has already announced his candidacy. But other candidates are playing the waiting game. Announcing one’s intention to run places restrictions on fundraising and expenditures. so most candidates wait to announce until the last possible moment.
That doesn’t stop them from allowing others to tout their viability and electability. Hence, the NRA convention where the potential 2024 candidates will thump their chests and tell attendees why they need to be elected president to protect gun rights from Biden and the Democrats who want to pry them from your hands — cold or not.
Trump will speak on Friday afternoon. And even though Indiana is an open carry state, the Secret Service takes a very dim view of anyone carrying a firearm in close proximity to the former president or vice president. Attendees will be disarmed before entering the speaking venue.
Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, is also speaking as he considers his own 2024 White House bid. It will be the first time the pair has addressed the same campaign event on the same day since their estrangement following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Two GOP Trump critics — former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who announced his 2024 campaign after news of the former president’s indictment broke, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who may launch his own White House bid — will also speak.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who began her 2024 campaign in February, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who announced a presidential exploratory committee this week, are all sending video messages.
The Trump/Pence dueling speeches will supply most of the media fodder. But it’s the continuing efforts of the media and the Democrats to connect the NRA and Republicans to mass shootings in a totally dishonest and nauseating way.
“Every significant national Republican, every Republican that’s thrown their hat in the ring to run for president, is showing up this weekend to pledge their undying loyalty to the NRA and the gun lobby,” said Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who championed bipartisan legislation that passed last year. “Our kids are being hunted and the NRA’s business model is to give aid to the hunters.”
That may be red meat to the gun grabbers but it’s idiotic on its face. Our children are not being “hunted” in any way, shape, or form. And the NRA’s “business model” must be the same as the ACLU’s, which also opposes yanking gun rights from the mentally ill without cause.
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Blaming the NRA and the availability of guns for gun violence loses sight of the obvious; guns alone and by themselves do not cause violence. But saying they do is a way to deliberately misinterpret the facts and twist the context.
Senator Murphy is going for the cheap applause lines rather than doing anything constructive about mass shootings. Enforcing the laws already on the books would be a good start. Adding laws that no one is going to enforce may be good politics for some but it’s lousy public policy.
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