Trump vows to undo Biden gun restrictions if re-elected
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[February 10, 2024]
By Nathan Layne
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -Former President Donald Trump, the
Republican frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race, said on Friday he
had firmly protected gun rights while in the White House and vowed if
re-elected to undo all restrictions enacted by President Joe Biden.
Speaking to thousands of supporters at an event organized by the
National Rifle Association (NRA), Trump promised to rescind a rule
curbing sales of gun accessories known as pistol braces and other
regulations put in place by the Biden administration.
"Every single Biden attack on gun owners and manufacturers will be
terminated my very first week back in office, perhaps my first day,"
Trump said in a speech at the Great American Outdoor show in Harrisburg,
the capital of Pennsylvania.
The NRA enthusiastically backed Trump during the 2016 race and
throughout his administration, cheering him on as he appointed three
conservative justices to the Supreme Court and adopted a series of steps
sought by the influential gun lobby. These included designating firearm
shops as essential businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing
them to stay open.
Seeing conservative gun owners as critical to his re-election chances,
Trump has continued to court them aggressively. He told the crowd on
Friday that if he is re-elected "no one will lay a finger on your
firearms" and bragged about resisting pressure to implement gun
restrictions during his term in the White House from 2017 to 2021.
"During my four years nothing happened, and there was great pressure on
me having to do with guns. We did nothing, we didn't yield," Trump said.
Republicans, with the support of the NRA and other gun rights groups,
largely oppose stricter laws, citing the right to bear arms established
in the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment. That stance has remain
fixed even in the face of a steady stream of mass shootings, and with
the United States registering the highest rate of gun deaths among rich
countries.
At Friday's address, Trump's eighth in front of an NRA crowd, he urged
his supporters to "swamp" the polls in November, a recognition that he
needs the battleground state he lost in 2020 if he wants to retake the
White House.
Ahead of Trump's speech, the Democratic National Committee put up a
billboard in Harrisburg referring to comments Trump made following a
school shooting in Iowa in January, when he expressed condolences before
telling his supporters they had "to get over it," and needed "to move
forward."
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Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald
Trump attends the National Rifle Association (NRA) Presidential
Forum at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex & Expo Center, in
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, U.S., February 9, 2024. REUTERS/Leah
Millis
"Donald Trump to victims of gun violence: 'get over it'," the
billboard reads.
The Biden campaign held a call on Friday with reporters about Trump
and the NRA. One speaker was Maxwell Frost, a 27-year-old Florida
congressman who said he got into politics to stop school shootings
and enact stronger gun laws.
"We have Republican politicians like Donald Trump, who are all too
willing to stand by and watch kids senselessly die, because he's
bought and paid for by the NRA," Frost said.
Trump's speech came one day after he won Republican presidential
nominating caucuses in Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands, moving
closer to the nomination and a likely general election rematch with
Biden.
Trump again on Friday raised questions about Biden's mental acuity,
the day after a Department of Justice special counsel report said
Biden, 81, suffered from memory lapses, even as it concluded he
should not be charged in a probe into his handling of classified
documents.
The White House blasted that characterization and called the report
"clearly politically motivated."
Trump, 77, has his own history of gaffes, recently confusing
Republican rival Nikki Haley with the former Democratic speaker of
the House, occasionally appearing to slur his words and suggesting
former Democratic President Barack Obama was still in office.
On Friday Trump made a number of false or misleading statements,
including the assertion that he had won Pennsylvania twice.
(Reporting by Nathan Layne and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Cynthia
Osterman and William Mallard)
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