DALLAS (AP) — The Latest on the annual meeting in Dallas of the National Rifle Association (all times local):
3:45 p.m.Elected officials from Texas have joined President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence in speaking to National Rifle Association members at the group's annual meeting.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott told the crowd Friday afternoon that the answer to gun violence is to strengthen gun rights under the Constitution's Second Amendment.
He also talked about Stephen Willeford, who grabbed his rifle and ran across the street to open fire on the gunman who slaughtered more than two dozen people in a church in the small town of Sutherland Springs in November. The gunman shot and killed 25 people at the church. Authorities have put the official toll at 26, because one of the victims was pregnant.
Willeford is an NRA member who has served as an instructor. He was honored by the NRA earlier Friday. After he exchanged gunfire with 26-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley, Willeford jumped in a man's pickup truck and they pursued him. Kelley died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Abbott says "because (Willeford) had a gun, he saved lives."
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn also cited Willeford's actions that day. He says, "Guns can save lives, plain and simple."
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3 p.m.
Tara Dixon Engel has made her first trip to a National Rifle Association annual meeting, traveling to Dallas from Florida.
The 56-year-old from Merritt Island, Florida, is author of a handgun guide for women and director of strategic development for the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum in Titusville, Florida.
She said she
