LOUISVILLE — Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky on Friday slammed the idea of gun-free zones in front of a crowd of gun-rights enthusiasts at the National Rifle Association’s annual meetings in Mr. Paul’s home state.

“These terrible, recurring tragedies keep occurring in one place: gun-free zones,” Mr. Paul said at the NRA-ILA Leadership Forum. “These terrible tragedies keep happening in areas that we [have] pre-announced are defenseless.”

“Look, I’ve got children. I can’t imagine one of my kids being killed at school by a deranged killer,” said Mr. Paul, a former 2016 GOP presidential candidate. “But as a physician, I was trained to solve problems — to get beyond emotions and find answers.

“For the life of me, I can’t imagine how we can legislate away evil,” Mr. Paul said. “I can imagine, though, how we can remove the obstacles to self-defense.

“I think one way to try to avoid these senseless killings would be to announce, once and for all time, that no school, no movie theater, no supermarket in America will be left defenseless,” he said to applause.

“Once and for all time, government should remove all legal barriers from allowing our children [and] our schools to have defense against these killers,” he said.

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