Former President Trump turned an address before gun rights activists at the National Rifle Association (NRA) into a post-indictment stump speech by tearing into prosecutors for going after him instead of ‘thugs and hoodlums.’
‘The only one they wanna prosecute is Donald Trump,’ the former president said after leaving New York, where Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg has charged him with 34 counts of business fraud and state Attorney General Letitia James is launching a $250 million lawsuit over his business practices.
‘Let’s get that son of a b***h!’ Trump quipped.
‘The Biden gun control agenda is part and parcel of the left wing crusade to weaponize government against law-abiding citizens while letting criminals run free…As soon as you go out for a loaf of bread, you wind up getting shot,’ Trump said.
He promised he would direct the Department of Justice to investigate every ‘radical’ DA and attorney general, like Bragg and ‘racist in reverse’ James. ‘They’re either stupid or they hate our country … I believe they hate our country.’
Trump turned an address before gun rights activists at the National Rifle Association (NRA) into a post-indictment stump speech by tearing into prosecutors for going after him instead of ‘thugs and hoodlums’
‘The Biden gun control agenda is part and parcel of the left wing crusade to weaponize government against law-abiding citizens while letting criminals run free…As soon as you go out for a loaf of bread, you wind up getting shot,’ Trump said
While the speech sounded off much like a rally speech, touching on a whole host of Trump’s favorite issues, he pivoted back to gun control at points.
‘I promise you this — with me at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue no one will lay a finger on your firearms,’ Trump said.
He promised to roll back the Biden Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ (ATF) pistol-bracing rule, which requires require gun owners to either register pistols with stabilizing braces with the ATF.
‘I don’t know. They wanted me to put that in. I guess some people are happy with it. I don’t know,’ Trump said after announcing he would roll back the rule to applause from the crowd.
‘Let’s be very clear: The issue is not too many guns. The issue is too many thugs, hoodlums and savage criminals on our streets.’
Trump promised to order the ATF ‘to stop going after gun store owners for paperwork errors’ and instead focus on cartels and traffickers.
‘This is not a gun problem, this is a mental health problem, this is a social problem, this is a cultural problem, and this a spiritual problem.’
‘For about $12 million dollars armed security guards every school in America, and arm teachers,’ Trump said, adding he would introduce a tax credit that would reimburse teachers the ‘full cost’ of a concealed-carry firearm and training.
His plan to address mental health includes directing the FDA to ‘to convene an independent outside panel to investigate whether transgender hormone treatments and ideology increase the risk of extreme depression, aggression, and even violence.’
Trump spoke just after leaving New York where he spent eight hours on Thursday in attorney general Letitia James’ office over her $250 million lawsuit alleging fraud in his business practices.
Earlier, Vice President Mike Pence took the stage to raucous booing at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual leadership summit in his home state.
‘I love you too,’ Pence said sarcastically at the Indianapolis event, speaking about an hour before former President Trump.
Pence called for mass shooters to be executed as soon as possible and blamed trans people and mental illness for the nation’s chronic gun violence.
‘I’m tired of the senseless violence and loss of life that could be prevented if our leaders would support law enforcement, protect our schools, institutionalize the obviously mentally ill, and enact legislation that would ensure that anyone who engages in these heinous acts of mass violence meets their fate in months, not years,’ Pence said.
Vice President Mike Pence took the stage to raucous booing at the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) annual leadership summit in his home state
‘We don’t need gun control,’ Pence added. ‘We need crime control.’
The former vice president called for armed guards in public and private school in the U.S. ‘The answer to mass shootings is not fewer guns,’ he said. ‘It’s more institutional mental health.’
‘Ignoring the motivations of the trans activist who killed three children and three adults at that Christian school in Nashville, and the ‘mental health challenges’ of the man who killed five people and injured eight others in Louisville, President Biden and the Democrats have returned to the same tired arguments about gun control and confiscation,’ Pence said.
The female shooter at Covenant Christian school in Nashville used male pronouns on social media.
Pence called for the U.S. to ‘get back to institutional mental health facilities.’
Pence spoke to the crowd ahead of Trump. The one-time running mates and close allies are now preparing for a political duel against each other if Pence moves forward with plans to enter the presidential race.
Trump and another GOP presidential hopeful – former Vice President Mike Pence – are speaking to gun rights activists at the NRA convention in Indianapolis.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and United Nations ambassador, the other three GOP frontrunner presidential hopefuls, are also appearing by video messages.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, are appearing in person, as are Indiana Sen. Mike Braun and Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio.
NRA annual leadership attendees listen to national anthem
Guests inspect merchandise while attending the 152nd National Rifle Association’s Convention at the Indiana Convention Center on April 14, 2023 in Indianapolis, Indiana
The convention occurs in the wake of mass shootings in Kentucky and Tennessee – this week a gunman killed five people at a bank in Louisville, Ky.
The convention occurs in the wake of mass shootings in Kentucky and Tennessee – this week a gunman killed five people at a bank in Louisville, Ky. Three weeks ago a shooter killed three children and three adults at an elementary school in Nashville.
The convention also falls on the anniversary of the mass shooting in Indianapolis that left 9 people at a Fedex facility dead.
Last year’s NRA convention took place in Houston, Texas days after 19 children and two adults were killed by a gunman a few hundred miles west in Uvalde, Texas.
But NRA president Wayne LaPierre, undeterred by the shootings, said that ‘gun hating politicians should never go to bed unafraid of what this association and all of our millions of members can do to their political career.’
Last year Congress passed the most significant gun reform in decades
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