Donald Trump vows to be 'true friend' to NRA

Donald Trump has reaffirmed his support for gun rights, telling a National Rifle Association (NRA) convention that "the eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end".

Donald Trump vows to be 'true friend' to NRA

Donald Trump has reaffirmed his support for gun rights, telling a National Rifle Association (NRA) convention that "the eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end".

Mr Trump, the first sitting president to address the group's annual convention in more than 30 years, assured the audience that he would defend their right to bear arms.

"You have a true friend and champion in the White House," he said.

The president's trip to Atlanta also serves as his first foray into a congressional race since taking office.

Mr Trump is expected to attend a private fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel, a local election that has become a national referendum on his presidency.

Mr Trump has been a champion of gun rights and supportive of NRA efforts to loosen restrictions on gun ownership.

During the campaign, he promised to do away with President Barack Obama's efforts to strengthen background checks and to eliminate gun-free zones at schools and military bases.

The last president to address an NRA convention was Ronald Reagan, who spoke to the 1983 gathering, according to the powerful gun rights lobby. Mr Trump's appearance in Atlanta has sparked protests.

The NRA is pushing for federal legislation to make any state's concealed-carry permits valid nationwide.

Opponents say the move would effectively turn the weakest gun standards in the nation into the law of the land.

The GOP-led Congress already passed a resolution to block a rule that would have kept guns out of the hands of certain people with mental disorders, and Mr Trump quickly signed it.

Mr Trump, who also attended last year's NRA convention as a candidate, boasts of owning a pair of guns and says his two adult sons are avid hunters.

He stirred controversy during the campaign when he suggested that "Second Amendment people" could stop his opponent Hillary Clinton, which some interpreted to be a call for violence against the Democratic nominee. Mr Trump disputed that charge.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer said on the plane trip from Washington that NRA members supported Mr Trump during the election based on his strong commitment to gun rights. He also cited Mr Trump's appointment of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court.

"I know the NRA is glad to have a justice in that seat who is such a staunch defender of the Constitution," he said.

Kevin Michalowski, executive editor of a magazine published by the United States Concealed Carry Association, said seeing that a president will be addressing the annual meeting "gives the gun industry a feeling of he's on our side".

The political landscape has changed dramatically with a president now in the White House friendly to the gun industry and gun rights.

But Mr Michalowski said it is premature to get complacent with gun sales having tapered off since the election and "there's always a group out there that opposes the Second Amendment and what it stands for".

Donald Trump address means guns banned from NRA convention

One aspect of seeing President Donald Trump open the National Rifle Association's annual meeting was a bit of a disappointment for otherwise-excited members: No guns were allowed.

Guns are allowed in most public places in Georgia, including in the Georgia World Congress Centre in Atlanta where the NRA is holding its annual meeting this weekend.

But as with most presidential appearances, firearms were banned.

The rule left some attendees feeling a little out of sorts without a sidearm or other weapon they might ordinarily carry to protect themselves.

But many decided they were safe given the event hall was swept hours earlier by the Secret Service, and there were sniffer dogs and metal detectors to get past before getting inside.

"If the president wasn't here, we'd be carrying. We're in the safest place right now," said Mark D Swinson, an NRA-certified instructor who with his wife owns a company that provides firearms training.

But he confessed: "I did feel a little naked."

The NRA gathering is taking place in a sprawling convention centre a short distance from Centennial Olympic Park, where a bomb exploded during the 1996 Summer Olympics.

The nearby CNN centre, which has a food court open to the public on the first floor, has its own history of violence. In 2007, a gunman shot and killed his ex-girlfriend who worked in an adjoining hotel.

It is par for the course that firearms are not allowed in venues where the president is present. The same rule applies for presidential candidates, and when Mr Trump addressed the NRA annual meeting last year, firearms were not allowed then either.

The NRA provided lockers for free so people could stow their firearms while inside the room where Mr Trump was speaking on Friday afternoon.

There were no restrictions in other parts of the convention centre, and after the president's departure attendees could again arm themselves.

To the scores of anti-guns protesters gathered outside the convention hall, the ban on guns inside seemed ironic - and underscored their concerns that firearms make society unsafe.

"They want to allow guns in schools but they don't want to allow them in their own convention," said Helen Peek, an Atlanta resident who joined protesters outside the building. "So they know how lethal they are."

Ms Peek said she decided to join Friday's protest largely because she opposes an NRA-backed Bill that would allow people to carry concealed handguns on college campuses.

The Secret Service has the authority to bar firearms from being carried into places visited by the people they protect, including in open-carry states.

NRA member Christopher Barnett, who lives outside of Palm Beach, Florida, said he did not mind leaving his weapon behind as a standard security precaution for the president.

Bill Scott, a member of the Utah Shooting Sports Council, said he would only be worried if there was no security sweep and not the scores of Secret Service agents providing security.

"If there wasn't any of that at this event and they told me no guns, I'd say no way," he added.

AP

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