A slew of 2024 GOP presidential hopefuls are traveling to Indianapolis on Friday for a National Rifle Association convention at which they will court gun rights activists in the wake of mass shootings in Kentucky and Tennessee in recent days.
Former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence – the former ticket-mates who have split over Trump’s actions leading up to and during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol – will both attend the gathering, potentially putting the two in the same room for the first time since leaving office.
Other GOP candidates and prospects, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, will also appear in person. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley will deliver video messages.
Those 2024 contenders are slated to speak at a Friday afternoon “leadership forum” during the convention, which began Thursday and ends Sunday.
The NRA, the nation’s foremost gun lobby, has seen its power wane in recent years amid leadership fights and legal battles. In 2021, the organization attempted to declare bankruptcy – an effort rejected by a federal judge. Still, the group is influential among conservatives, and its annual gatherings remain a magnet for presidential hopefuls.
This year’s gathering in Indianapolis is taking place four days after a gunman killed five people at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, and less than three weeks after another shooter killed three children and three adults at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.
It’s reminiscent of last year’s NRA convention going on as scheduled in Houston, just days after 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman at an elementary school 280 miles west in…
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