Donald Trump, who has made several proclamations in support of gun control in the past—even praising President Obama in the wake of the Newtown school shooting—gave a speech Friday to the NRA that would make any Second Amendment proponent ecstatic.
Trump dug in on Hillary Clinton, calling her “anti-gun,” noting to the cheering audience that she “wants to take your guns away.” He posited that the shooters in the San Bernardino terrorism attack last year would have been easier to capture had local citizens been armed. He also decried gun bans, pledging to abolish all gun-free zones if he becomes president.
Speaking at the annual convention for the NRA, which endorsed Trump on Friday, the presumptive Republican nominee vowed to “cherish” the Second Amendment” and called on Clinton to give up her armed Secret Service guards if she couldn’t bring herself to support the right to bear arms. (Clinton can’t; the government issues the armed guards.)
Friday’s comments are a far cry from Trump’s previous public statements on gun control. In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, Trump accused Republicans of “walking the NRA line” and voiced support for stringent gun restrictions. And then, there’s this:
President Obama spoke for me and every American in his remarks in #Newtown Connecticut.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 17, 2012
His position has definitely evolved.
We also called Trump Towers, to see if Trump lives his word on “gun-free” zones; it turns out, he allows managers to decide for themselves on gun bans. According to some mildly annoyed receptionists, the Trump Towers in New York and Chicago are gun-free buildings. The Trump Hotels in Las Vegas and Miami are more liberal—both said they’d let us bring in a gun if we had a current permit and legal ID.
Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s personal club, however, is gun free.
We do know that Trump and his sons own guns, but New York doesn’t require the registration to be searchable. Both Trump and his son, Donald Trump, Jr. have had registered firearms permits in New York, since around 2011 (before his comments on Newtown). In 2012, Trump told Dennis Miller that he owns an “H&K .45 and a .38 Smith & Wesson.”
