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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will become the first sitting president to address a National Rifle Association convention in more than 30 years when he speaks Friday at the group’s annual meeting.
The president’s trip to Atlanta also serves as his first foray into a congressional race since taking office. Trump will attend a private fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Karen Handel.
Trump has been a champion of gun rights and supportive of NRA efforts to loosen restrictions on gun ownership. During the campaign, he promised to do away with President Barack Obama’s efforts to strengthen background checks.
According to the NRA, the last president to address an NRA convention was Ronald Reagan, who spoke in 1983.
The stage is set and tested for the keynote by President Donald Trump at the National Rifle Association Leadership Forum in the Georgia World Congress Center on Thursday, April 27, 2017, in Atlanta. As the NRA holds its annual convention, opposition groups are sending a clear message that gun rights supporters will not go unchallenged in the age of Trump. On Friday, he’ll become the first president to appear at an NRA convention since Ronald Reagan in 1983. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)