Less than six years ago, then-President Donald Trump took on the influential gun lobby after the deadliest massacre in modern American history. He announced that he had told the National Rifle Association that “bump stocks are gone,” arguing that they are “turning legal guns into illegal machine guns.”
On Friday, Trump’s campaign to return to the White House defended a Supreme Court decision to lift his own ban on those devices. Trump has been endorsed by the NRA and claimed in a speech this year that he was “doing nothing” to restrict guns.
The Supreme Court’s ruling drew new attention to Trump’s complicated record on the Second Amendment, a state he has downplayed this year given his conservative base’s aversion to gun control — even as Americans broadly support stricter restrictions on firearms, according to public opinion polls.
As president, Trump grappled with the high school massacre in Parkland, Florida, and other mass shootings, sometimes promising to strengthen gun laws, only to renege on those vows.
For example, at a meeting with survivors and family members of the 2018 Parkland shooting, Trump promised to be “very strong on background checks” and later scolded a Republican senator for being “afraid of the NRA.” He claimed he would stand up to the gun lobby and finally get results in suppressing gun violence.
But he later backed down after a meeting with the group, expressing support for modest changes to federal background checks and arming teachers, saying in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that there was “not much political support (so to speak). mild).”
Now he bills himself as “the best friend gun owners ever had in the White House.”
Karoline Leavitt, spokesperson for his campaign, issued a statement Friday saying the court’s decision “must be respected.”
“President Trump has been and always will be a fierce defender of America’s Second Amendment rights, and he is proud to be endorsed by the NRA,” Leavitt said.
President Joe Biden called the Trump-era ban “an important gun safety rule,” while the Democratic incumbent’s campaign criticized Trump for appointing three Supreme Court justices who voted to strike down the ban.
“Weapons of war have no place on the streets of America, but Trump’s Supreme Court justices have decided that the gun lobby is more important than the safety of our children and our communities,” said Michael Tyler, spokesman for the Biden campaign.
The Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration had overstepped its bounds when it banned bump stocks in 2018 after a mass shooting in Las Vegas that left hundreds injured and dozens dead. The devices enable a rate of fire comparable to machine guns.
The decision did not provoke an outpouring of reaction from most Republican members of Congress. That reflects the precarious situation facing many in the Republican party, as the ruling is seen as a victory for the pro-gun community despite the reversal of a Trump-era ban.
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie is a Kentucky Republican who has opposed Trump and supported Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ failed bid for the White House. On Friday, he posted on Other Republican federal lawmakers simply called it an “unconstitutional” ban, but did not mention Trump.
Friday’s decision could draw more attention in the key western state of Nevada, where in 2017 a high-stakes gambler killed 60 people before killing himself, leaving his exact motive a mystery.
A Nevada state lawmaker who was among the 22,000 concertgoers who fled the barrage of bullets in Las Vegas in October 2017 said, “No community has felt the devastating impact of bump stocks more than Nevadans.”
“Now more than ever, it is important to elect Democrats up and down to ensure we protect our communities from the gun violence epidemic and to prevent soulless, morally corrupt and bankrupt MAGA Republicans tied to the gun lobby , take the lead. of the public safety of our communities,” said Assemblywoman Sandra Jauregui, a Democrat. _____
Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Farnoush Amiri and Scott Sonner contributed to this report.
