President Donald Trump is set to address the National Rifle Association's annual convention for the third year in a row on Friday, amid increased scrutiny of his administration's response to multiple mass shootings that have sparked protests nationwide in the past year.
The president has previously used the occasion to publicly boast about his work to protect Second Amendment rights, and in 2017 he was the first sitting president to address the NRA's convention since Ronald Reagan in 1983.
"The eight-year assault on your Second Amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end," Trump said in his address. "You have a true friend and champion in the White House. No longer will federal agencies be coming after law-abiding gun owners."
However, in the year since that address the president and the NRA have drawn controversy over their reactions in the wake of the mass shootings in Las Vegas, Parkland, Florida and the Sutherland Springs Church shooting in Texas.
While the president has sought credit for taking steps to implement a ban on the use of 'bumpstocks' that the Vegas shooter used, he later backed away from remarks he made in a meeting with bipartisan lawmakers where he seemed to entertain tighter gun restrictions such as universal background checks, an assault weapons ban and raising the age limit on purchase of certain firearms.
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“I like taking the guns early,” Trump said in the late February meeting, referring to a proposal that would allow law enforcement to intervene and confiscate firearms from individuals deemed a danger to others. “Take the guns first, go through due
