Trump vows to protect freedoms of gun owners in NRA speech
The President pledged to protect the Second Amendment at a gun lobby's conference where the audience was banned from being armed.
Friday 28 April 2017 20:46, UK
Donald Trump has addressed the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association - telling the powerful gun lobby it has "a true friend and champion in the White House".
During his speech, the President vowed to "never, ever infringe" on the right of the American people to bear arms.
"The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end," Mr Trump told the cheering crowd in Atlanta, Georgia.
He is the first sitting president to address the NRA since Ronald Reagan in 1983.
After regaling the audience with a lengthy story about how he won last November's presidential election, he spoke of his pride at receiving an endorsement from the NRA early in the campaign.
"You came through for me and I am going to come through for you," Mr Trump declared.
Somewhat ironically, audience members were stopped from bringing their guns into the event hall at the request of the US Secret Service.
In a lengthy list on the NRA's website, attendees were also banned from carrying ammunition, explosives, knives, pepper spray, selfie sticks and "weapons of any kind".
Mr Trump told the audience that "responsible gun ownership saves lives" - and added that banning guns would mean only criminals remain armed.
The President also criticised Washington for going after law-abiding gun owners instead of clamping down on criminals, drug dealers, traffickers and gang members.
Sky's US Correspondent, Cordelia Lynch, said Mr Trump's speech was designed to get hard-line conservatives on his side.
"What you're seeing today at the NRA is a president really trying to address his domestic agenda - that he will back restrictions and that he does support the Second Amendment," she added.
Protesters in favour of stricter gun controls took to the streets of downtown Atlanta before President Trump's address to the NRA.
The demonstrators brandished signs supporting background checks for gun sales and criticising NRA political donations as blood money.
Some of the protesters also held a "die-in" to symbolise the victims of gun violence.