ATLANTA — For the excited NRA faithful, one aspect of seeing President Trump open their annual meeting Friday was a bit of a downer: No guns were allowed.

Guns are allowed in most public places in Georgia, including in the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, where the National Rifle Association is holding its annual meeting this weekend. But as with most presidential appearances, firearms weren’t allowed.

The rule left some attendees feeling a little out of sorts without a sidearm or almost any kind of weapon they might ordinarily carry, including pepper spray and knives.

But many figured they were safe given the event hall was swept hours earlier by the Secret Service, and there were K-9 dogs and metal detectors to get past before getting inside.

“If the president wasn’t here, we’d be carrying. We’re in the safest place right now,” said Mark D. Swinson, an NRA-certified instructor who with his wife owns a company that provides firearms training.

Still, he confessed, “I did feel a little naked getting here” from the hotel, a few blocks away from the conventional hall.

The NRA gathering is taking place in a sprawling convention center a block from CNN and a short distance from Centennial Olympic Park, where a bomb exploded during the 1996 Summer Olympics. The CNN center, which has a food court open to the public on the first floor, has its own history of violence. In 2007, a gunman shot and killed his ex-girlfriend who worked in an adjoining hotel.

It’s par for the course that firearms are not allowed in venues where the president is present. The same holds true for presidential candidates.


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