Global Courant 2023-04-15 02:35:47
INDIANAPOLIS — Former President Donald Trump vowed to defend and expand the rights of gun owners in a speech at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting here Friday.
“I was proud to be the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president you ever had in the White House,” Trump told an audience that jumped up, cheered and chanted “USA” as he was introduced. “And with your support in 2024, I will once again be your faithful friend and fearless champion as the 47th President of the United States.”
Against the backdrop of recent mass shootings in Tennessee and Kentucky, a stampede of 2024 Republican presidential candidates and potential candidates hastened to pledge their loyalty to the NRA in front of several thousand gun rights activists in a spacious hall at the convention center here. And they scoffed at the idea that gun and ammunition restrictions would reduce violence.
“It is a scandal and a tragedy that, year after year, Democrats in Washington continue to hold common sense school safety measures hostage through their radical gun control agenda, which in virtually every case would do nothing to prevent attacks by demented and disturbed individuals.” Trump said .
“This is not a gun issue,” he added, clearing for a long list of Republican officials and office seekers. “This is a mental health problem, this is a social problem, this is a cultural problem, this is a spiritual problem.”
In addition to Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy spoke in person. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave brief remarks in pre-recorded videos.
The NRA has been weakened in recent years by a scandal involving the use of the nonprofit’s funds and a related lawsuit brought by New York State. But the rush of presidential candidates and would-be candidates to make pledges to the group showed that the single issue remains a powerful one in the Republican primary.
“I’m the NRA,” Noem said before taking the stage to sign an order in South Dakota that she says would prevent financial institutions from discriminating against gun owners.
In their battle for the public’s favor, politicians pointed to the escalating stakes of a presidential race that is still taking shape. Trump, seeking his third consecutive nomination, has had a commanding lead in nearly every national poll. DeSantis has stood out in surveys as the clear second-place choice among GOP voters at this early stage.
They were the two candidates that NRA members chatted about as they waited in line, some for hours, to be seated in the convention hall. And long before he took the stage, Trump was mentioned by name — and by implication — in speeches by some would-be rivals.
“It’s not in our DNA as Americans to say that yesterday’s leadership will be our best chance for tomorrow’s leadership,” Sununu said with a thinly veiled swipe at Trump. “Are you joking?”
Pence, a former governor of Indiana who is considering a presidential bid, was received in his home state with a mix of lecherous boos and loud applause. The divided response underscored some of the challenge Pence would face in a campaign after he enraged Trump and many Republican voters by confirming President Joe Biden’s 2021 election. his comments: his achievements as vice president stemmed from Trump’s as president.
Referring to the Trump-Pence administration, he said, “We stood without apologies for the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”
In an interview with NBC News, former Senator Larry Craig, R-Idaho, a member of the NRA’s board of directors, said he has not yet decided on the contest for the GOP nomination.
“I’ve been a supporter of Donald Trump, but I also see the options, and I like DeSantis,” said Craig. “I’m not sure Donald Trump can be stopped from the nomination. Therein lies the question.”
While many in attendance wore Trump-branded hats and shirts, the former president’s views on guns didn’t always match those of the most ardent activists.
“He could have been better at that,” said Liza Danno, 48, who traveled to the convention from a Chicago suburb. “But you know, everyone you vote for, you don’t support 100 percent of everything they approve of.”
Her husband, Joe Danno, 47, identified as problematic Trump’s support for a ban on bump stocks — accessories that allow shooters to fire semi-automatic weapons more quickly — and his call to raise the age limit for gun purchases to 21.
The pair echoed some of the sentiments of Republican primary voters who spoke to NBC News on Friday. Liza Danno said she will vote for Trump. Her husband said that’s his plan too, but that he’ll give DeSantis a chance to stand up for himself.
“He would probably be my vote if it wasn’t Trump,” said Joe Danno. “I’m definitely open because I don’t know enough about Ron DeSantis to count him out.”
On Friday, DeSantis was in New Hampshire, which is hosting the first GOP presidential primaries next year, to speak at a Republican fundraising dinner.
But he had fans at the convention, with a huge exhibit hall filled with all manner of weapons, accessories and clothing – from handguns to long rifles and an automatic feeder for quickly loading rounds into magazines.
Evelyn Kuhn, a 65-year-old nurse from Payne, Ohio, just across the border from Fort Wayne, Ind., said she fears Trump might lose a general election and finds his “attitude” disturbing at times. That led her to DeSantis.
“I like his views and his demeanor and what he’s done with Florida,” she said.
In his pre-recorded remarks, DeSantis said the Second Amendment is “the last backstop of liberty, the foundation upon which all our other rights rest.” His performance was greeted with applause in the convention hall.
During his speech, Trump made several specific policy promises. He said he would urge Congress to pass legislation creating a national system of reciprocity so people can carry concealed weapons while visiting other states.
He also said he would create a tax credit to subsidize gun purchases and teacher training, and would direct the Food and Drug Administration to review the effects of transgender hormone therapy on “extreme depression, aggression and even violence.” study.
Trump noted that he has appointed three justices to a Supreme Court that expanded gun rights, and also promised to release a list of potential Supreme Court picks — like he did during his first two campaigns — before the general election in 2024.
