Parkland Survivors Brilliantly Mock NRA For Banning Guns During Mike Pence Speech
The NRA and Secret Service are making sure no guns get near Mike Pence at his speech — and Parkland students noticed
The National Rifle Association is having its annual meeting this Friday in Dallas, Texas where Vice President Mike Pence is scheduled to speak. The organization has long championed the “good guy with a gun” theory, but apparently, not so much when it comes to firearms being allowed near politicians at one of their own meetings.
Luckily, the incredible student activists of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were only too quick to point out how ridiculous and hypocritical it is to ban guns from their own meetings, but also champion them being basically everywhere else.
The NRA’s event page advertising its Leadership Forum and Pence’s special appearance also includes a wee little blurb about plans to protect the country’s second in command during his address to the group on May 4th. Parkland activist Cameron Kasky took to Twitter with a screenshot of the group’s note about banning weapons of any kind, including firearms, firearm accessories, and knives.
“The NRA has evolved into such a hilarious parody of itself,” Kasky observed. And the teen isn’t wrong. The organization has famously advocated for guns just about everywhere, touting the idea that good guys with guns is the best solution for gun violence — even when it comes to schools.
But apparently, when it comes to rooms full of their own members and the big and brave Second Ammendment-protecting VP, it’s just too risky.
Mmmk bros.
Kasky wasn’t the only Parkland activist to weigh in on the ridiculousness.
Fred Guttenberg is the father of Jaime Guttenberg, a 14-year-old student who was among the victims of the shooting on February 14th. He’s scratching his head too.
Aside from the Pence event, lawfully carried firearms will be permitted at the convention and the hotel where it’s being held, but it’s pretty telling that the U.S. Secret Service (and the NRA) recognizes the very real dangers of having firearms around the second most powerful man in the world and in that vein, are doing all they can to protect him. Wouldn’t it stand to reason, as the Parkland teens are pointing out, that kids in school deserve that same protection?
Guns were also banned when Donald Trump spoke at last year’s convention in Atlanta, so this isn’t a new policy, but it’s pretty darkly hilarious that the country is so sure to protect these men while blithely ignoring the risks of school resource officers or teachers carrying guns in schools. Around children.
If even the big, bad, gun-toting boys at the NRA and the Secret Service recognize the risks posed by a room full of armed individuals, wouldn’t it be nice if they applied that same logic to rooms full of kids? I won’t hold my breath for that to happen.
