The National Rifle Association's three-day Personal Protection Expo is expected draw up to 20,000 people to the Fort Worth Convention Center this weekend.
The event includes seminars and vendors geared toward personal protection, NRA spokesman Lars Dalseide said.
"The reason why we came to Dallas-Fort Worth is because there are a number of NRA members in the Dallas area and in Texas, in general," Dalseide said. "There are people that are looking for this time of information and quite frankly, we feel that it's beneficial to any community across the United States."
According to Dalseide, the NRA started to plan the event months in advance -- well before mass shootings in El Paso, Dayton, Ohio and most recently, Odessa. The string of violence has reignited the conversation of gun control and legislation.
Recently, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) told the Dallas Morning News he was "willing to take an arrow" and defy the NRA by suggesting Texas should tighten background check laws and crack down on private gun sales.
The NRA pushed back, comparing Patrick's proposals to "most political gambits."
"Instead of trampling the freedom of law-abiding Americans, the government should focus upon actual solutions: fixing our broken mental health system, prosecuting known criminals and enforcing the existing gun laws that require follow-up whenever a prohibited person tries to buy a firearm," the association said in statement.
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Dalseide said in general, the NRA has "usually had a very good relationship" with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Patrick.
At the expo, Garrett Martin with Bond Arms, said he didn't think the conversations actually happening in communities following tragedies were just about legislation.
"I think a lot of what you see when it actually happens in those communities is people realizing that they have their fate in their own hands, and I just know that if I was in that situation and I was driving down I-20 and something like that happened -- I would want a way to be able to defend myself and my family," Martin said. "If people on the other side of the equation would come to an event like this and talk to us, I think that you would find that we're not right-wing gun nuts. I mean, yeah -- we're all going to have our differences of opinions. But at the end of the day, we all value the same things. We value our family. We value our safety."
The expo lasts through Sunday. For more information, click here.
