Fact check: The Secret Service, not the NRA, is prohibiting attendees of Trump speech from carrying guns

NRA allows open-carry at conference; Secret Service banning guns at Trump speech

The Secret Service – not the NRA – is requiring visitors to relinquish their arms in order to secure the building, according to /information online about the event and a spokesman for the NRA.

“Restrictions are in place exclusively at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum at the direction of the United States Secret Service,” spokesman Lars Dalseide wrote in an email to USA TODAY. He called the claim that the NRA is banning guns at its conference “incorrect.” 

This mandate isn’t recent or related to the Texas school shooting, contrary to what some posts suggest. Archives of the event’s webpage show this information has been posted since May 14, two days after the NRA announced Trump would be speaking at the event.

The announcement linked to an online flyer that listed other banned items, including backpacks, drones, toy guns, knives, selfie sticks and umbrellas.

The exact same notice was posted by the NRA in 2018 to inform visitors of the Secret Service’s no-firearms mandate for speeches by Trump and then-Vice President Mike Pence. The event’s gun prohibition was similarly scrutinized by news outlets and social media critics at the time, leading then-NRA spokesperson Dana Loesche to send a fiery response to one Associated Press report on Twitter.


“NRA banned nothing,” she wrote. “The media does this every year. It’s Secret Service SOP (standard operating procedure) and they supersede all start and local control (sic). Don’t complain about your eroding credibility and people calling you ‘fake news’ when you publish things like this.”