Victims of the Florida high school shooting and their parents are criticizing the National Rifle Association[1] after it announced gun advocates won't be allowed to bring weapons to watch Vice President Mike Pence deliver the NRA-ILA's leadership forum keynote address in Dallas on Friday.
"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?," Matt Deitsch, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who helped organize the March For Our Lives protest, wrote [2]on Twitter.
"Can someone explain this to me? Because it sounds like the NRA wants to protect people who help them sell guns, not kids," he added.
The national convention "brings together our nation's top Second Amendment leaders in government, the media, and the entertainment industry," according to the NRA. It is expected to draw 80,000 members to explore more than 20 acres of firearm exhibits over three days.
A notice[3] posted on the event page explained that, "Due to the attendance of the Vice President of the United States, the U.S. Secret Service will be responsible for event security at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum. 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."
A second page[4] lists in detail all of the items that will be prohibited, including selfie sticks, backpacks, signs, drones, laser pointers, toy guns and weapons of any kind.
It is standard operating procedure for the U.S. Secret Service to coordinate security wherever the vice president travels, U.S. Secret Service officials told NPR. And the agency has "authority to
