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NRA Pence Speech: No Guns Allowed at Vice President's Appearance

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence during a luncheon at the U.S. State Department in Washington, D.C. on April 24, 2018. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)

By Clyde Hughes | Monday, 30 April 2018 02:48 PM EDT

The NRA will not allow firearms in the area where Vice President Mike Pence will speak Friday in Dallas at its annual meeting, pointing to federal law that prohibits firearms from being brought into areas where Secret Service protectees visit, The Washington Post reported.

National Rifle Association spokesman Shawn L. Holtzclaw told The Washington Post in a statement Sunday that the law trumps the Lone Star State's open-carry laws.

"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 told the Post.

The HuffPost said the firearms restrictions were posted on the NRA's website where the conference is announced, a requirement of Secret Service.

Some who survived the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed, questioned why the NRA reportedly resists extending the same safety considerations to schools, the HuffPost wrote.

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

Fred Guttenberg, father of Jamie Guttenberg, 14, who was killed in the shooting, mocked the NRA in a Twitter post.

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

David Hogg, one of the Stoneman Douglas student gun control activists who has emerged since the shooting had called on the Pence to cancel his speech with the NRA, according to the Washington Times.

Hogg touted in a tweet Sunday that he signed a MoveOn.org petition demanding that Pence cancel his speech Friday. The petition had more than 45,000 signees as of Monday.