Former Vice President Mike Pence was booed as he took the podium at the National Rifle Association (NRA) Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) Leadership Forum held Friday, video recorded by C-SPAN showed.
Several GOP presidential nominee hopefuls were slated to speak at the forum, held in Indianapolis, Indiana, including Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former President Donald Trump, according to the event website. The audience was quiet after Pence was introduced to speak, but then began to boo, video shows. (RELATED: ‘I Take Full Responsibility’: Mike Pence Says Classified Docs ‘Should Not Have Been’ At His Home)
One attendee shouted “we love you Mike” as the crowd quieted. Pence responded “I love you, too.”
holy shit Pence is getting booed loudly at the NRA event pic.twitter.com/iwhCntZ7Ac
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2023
Pence mentioned the recent shooting at Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, that killed three children and three adults and a recent shooting at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, that killed four during his speech. He called Democrat pushes for gun control “tired arguments” and doubled down that “we don’t need gun control, we need crime control.”
“We don’t need lectures about the liberties of law-abiding citizens, we need solutions to protect our kids,” he said.
Pence called for “armed resource officers” to be placed in public and private schools and for a “federal death penalty statute with accelerated appeal to ensure that those who engage in mass shooting face execution in months, not years.”
The forum is “one of the most politically significant and popular events in the country, featuring our nation’s top Second Amendment leaders in government, the media, and the entertainment industry,” according to its website. The speaker lineup also included NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, Republican Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Republican Indiana Sen. Mike Braun.
Haley, as well as Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, were scheduled to deliver a video message at the forum, according to the website.
The NRA-ILA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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