HARRISBURG, Pa. – Donald Trump on Friday acknowledged his cowardice in the case of America’s epidemic of gun violence and the ensuing slaughter of this country’s children.
Being Trump, he tried to make that sound like a advantage.
Talking at a Nationwide Rifle Affiliation gun present in Pennsylvania’s capital metropolis Friday, Trump bragged about his report of inaction.
“During my four years nothing happened,” Trump stated. “And there was nice stress on me, having to do with weapons. We did nothing. We didn’t yield.”
That’s Trump telling the reality for a change.
This is what did occur. From Jan. 20, 2017, to Jan. 19, 2021 – Trump’s time as president – the nation noticed 1,714 mass shootings during which 4 or extra folks had been killed or wounded, with 1,679 deaths and seven,355 accidents, Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for options to cease gun violence, advised me.
Trump did not point out that in his NRA speech. He additionally skipped the context, in fact, of the second six years in the past when he suggested making changes to gun laws that the NRA didn’t want whereas accusing different Republicans of being too afraid to do it earlier than finally backing down.
Trump and NRA revenue off our divided nation
Trump can’t stand as much as the NRA as a result of they’re too alike. They promote the identical product – division. They flip your concern into their cash.
Trump makes use of that cash to hunt energy and keep away from accountability, funneling campaign contributions to lawyers in his felony and civil instances.
Does Trump desire impeachment or courts? Former president thought the courts were safe bet against election denial charges. Now? Not so much.
The NRA makes use of that cash to stay giant – private jets, luxury vacations, bespoke wardrobes – all whereas masquerading as a defender of good-old plain-spoken American folks.
Its leaders have lengthy since made up from the momentary disagreement throughout Trump’s one time period as president.
To be clear: The NRA doesn’t serve the gang assembled Friday at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex to listen to Trump. It’s a lobbying arm of this nation’s gun producers.
The NRA doesn’t simply need you to purchase a gun. It needs you to purchase as many weapons as you possibly can. And similar to with Trump, division is its greatest advertising tactic.
The NRA’s fixed clamor is Democrats wish to seize weapons from everybody. Its pitch is all the time about “the great man with a gun” standing up in a shootout with a “dangerous man” with a gun.
Guess what the great man and the dangerous man have in frequent – they each are armed with weapons manufactured by corporations that the NRA values greater than your life.
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Trump as soon as instructed standing up the NRA
Wednesday marks six years since a massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the place a 19-year-old used a semiautomatic rifle to homicide 14 students and three staff members.
Trump hosted a White Home assembly on gun reform two weeks after that, the place he accused Republicans in a bipartisan group of legislators of avoiding some firearm points “because you’re afraid of the NRA.”
On the desk in that assembly, Trump overtly thought of elevating the age requirement from 18 to 21 to buy an assault rifle and making it simpler to grab weapons from folks thought of a hazard to themselves or others.
However he additionally supported an NRA-backed plan to arm teachers in schools.
Who’s afraid of the NRA? That’s all Trump. And why? The NRA spent more than $31 million to assist Trump defeat Hillary Clinton within the 2016 presidential election.
The NRA clearly solely cares in regards to the cash
In 2020, because the NRA was splintering with an inside battle about lavish spending by its leaders, the group still spent more than $16 million in Trump’s dropping battle in opposition to Joe Biden.
This has by no means been about weapons, for Trump or the NRA. It’s about cash.
Wayne LaPierre, the NRA chief who resigned last month, acknowledged in testimony throughout a civil trial that he spent the group’s cash and accepted items from distributors to live a lifestyle of personal flights, luxurious holidays and tailor-made fits.
He is gone, however the gun grift goes on.
Trump’s speech Friday was the closing occasion for the NRA’s Nice American Outside Present. A ticket to listen to Trump price $15 or got here free with a brand new membership with the group, which ranges from $45 for one yr or $1,500 for a lifetime membership.
Charles Cotton, the NRA president, launched Trump, saying the group had “no higher buddy” than the previous president.
Trump will not cross NRA once more however will inform us to ‘recover from’ the violence
The group, many sporting apparel emblazoned with Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” motto, welcomed him enthusiastically when he took the stage.
However Trump quickly turned torpid, sounding weary, and the gang matched his power as he rattled off a rolling repetition of his ordinary grievances about immigration and crime and the financial system.
He twice predicted a “100% likelihood” of a significant terrorist assault within the close to future and the arrival of World Struggle III if he isn’t elected president once more.
“A whole technology of younger folks may very nicely be decimated by one thing that might very nicely occur,” Trump said of that imagined war.
GOP impeachment case in opposition to president: Do you know what Republicans don’t need for a Biden investigation? Evidence, apparently.
He did not dare contact on the generations which have seen classmates murdered and wounded in school. Trump not often appears to be taught from his errors, however crossing the NRA shouldn’t be a misstep he’ll repeat.
He has a brand new method to the slaughter of youngsters in school rooms – “get over it.”
Campaigning final month forward of the Iowa caucuses, Trump addressed a current faculty taking pictures that left an 11-year-old boy and his principal dead and 6 wounded earlier than the 17-year-old gunman killed himself.
“It’s simply horrible, so shocking to see it right here,” Trump said while campaigning for an workplace the place, by his personal account, he did nothing to cease this type of factor. “However now we have to recover from it, now we have to maneuver ahead.”
College shootings are sadly not shocking. Neither is Trump’s shrug on the slaughter and eagerness to maneuver forward and money in with the NRA with out doing something to cease it.
Comply with USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, previously referred to as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan
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This text initially appeared on USA TODAY: Trump NRA speech shows his cowardice on gun violence, school shootings
