Mike Pence is booed at NRA gathering even as he seeks to move right of Trump on guns

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana - Former vice-president Mike Pence, a possible White House contender, looked to move to the right of his former boss and 2024 Republican front-runner Donald Trump at the annual NRA conference on Friday, calling for armed officers at all schools and speedier executions of shooters.

But in a sign of the tough battle Mr Pence faces to win over Trump fans and secure the Republican presidential nomination, boos rang out in the vast Indianapolis conference room of the National Rifle Association, the country’s leading gun-rights advocacy group, as he walked onto the stage to deliver his speech.

“I love you too,” Mr Pence joked, before touting his gun rights credentials and vowing he would never let “liberal meddlers” win, hoping to draw a contrast with Mr Trump, who is accused by some firearms aficionados of failing to care deeply about gun rights.

“I believe the time has come to institute a federal death penalty statute, with accelerated appeal, to ensure that those who engage in mass shootings face execution in months, not years,” Mr Pence, a former governor of Indiana, told the crowd of hundreds, many of whom were wearing Trump-themed T-shirts and red baseball hats.

Mr Pence, who has

criticised Mr Trump for the Jan 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol

by Trump supporters, received scattered applause during his speech and then more boos as he concluded.

Mr Trump, whom the NRA enthusiastically backed in 2016 before he was even officially declared the Republican presidential candidate, will address the gathering later on Friday, highlighting the gun lobby’s continued political potency even as the US reels from the latest spate of mass shootings.

The conference is taking place at a key moment in the Republican presidential campaign.

A number of hopefuls, including

Mr Trump’s closest rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis,

are deliberating on whether to jump in to the 2024 race to challenge the former president for the nomination. Mr DeSantis and other White House hopefuls, US Senator Tim Scott and former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, will address the NRA by video message.

The parade of top-tier politicians shows that the NRA event remains a rite of passage for Republican hopefuls, despite the slew of corruption accusations and legal problems faced by the group, as well as media reports of dwindling membership.

“The NRA is still the granddaddy of the guns lobby. The NRA-endorsed candidate in a Republican primary is very important,” said Mr Richard Feldman, a member and former NRA lobbyist.

Mr Feldman said he expected the NRA to endorse Mr Trump eventually because its most vocal membership base - which draws heavily from a white, rural and male population subset - still supports him.

While in office, Mr Trump was broadly supportive of gun rights, but angered some activists in 2018 by banning the high-power gun attachments used in a 2017 Las Vegas shooting in which dozens of people were killed.

Mr Trump’s campaign website says he will “always defend your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” but does not provide detailed policy proposals.

Even if the NRA does endorse Mr Trump, the group, faced with a major lawsuit in New York and falling revenue, according to some reports, is unlikely to provide the same financial support as in past elections.

Spending has already decreased: The NRA spent some US$54.4 million (S$72 million) during the 2016 election, including US$31.2 million for Trump’s campaign, but that fell to US$29.1 million in the 2020 cycle, the bulk of it for Mr Trump’s campaign, according to OpenSecrets, a nonpartisan research organisation that tracks US advocacy dollars.

Spike in mass shootings

The gun rights lobby has also come under pressure from the at least 149 mass shootings around the country since the start of the year.

In just the last three weeks, two mass shootings killed 11 people, first at a school in Nashville and then at a bank in Louisville. In both cases, the shooters purchased their weapons legally.

“Republican primary hopefuls are descending on Indianapolis to pander to the NRA’s extreme leaders for support that will be poison in a general election,” said Ms Shannon Watts, founder of gun control group Moms Demand Action.

The Biden administration, which has pushed gun regulations, on Friday said the NRA should be addressing the “soaring number of children” being killed with guns, and was instead resisting “commonsense” measures that would save lives.

The NRA did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr DeSantis, who is expected to declare his run in coming months, extoled a recent Florida law allowing residents to carry a concealed firearm without a permit.

“Because of our efforts in Florida, we now have a majority of states in this country that recognise such a right,” Mr DeSantis said. REUTERS