Trump to parents of murdered students: We need guns for entertainment
WASHINGTON — Today, GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, criticized former President Trump’s remarks during a town hall with Univision. The former president was asked, “Could you explain your gun control policy to the parents of the victims of school shootings?”
Trump replied that he would tell the grieving parents, “You wouldn’t be able to take away the guns because people need that for security, they need it for entertainment and for sports and other things.”
“In the aftermath of the school shooting in Parkland, the nation saw President Trump’s cruel indifference toward grieving families of school shooting victims. After promising to act, he turned his back on them after one call from the NRA,” said Vanessa N. Gonzalez, GIFFORDS Vice President of Government and Political Affairs. “Yesterday, Former President Trump made clear again that he only cares about making his gun lobby friends rich, not the children being killed every single day in this country. He has no plan, or even a concept of one, to stop this public health crisis. Gun violence is a top concern for Latinos. The Latino firearm homicide rate is more than double the non-Latino white firearm homicide rate. We see our children dying every day and the memories of Uvalde, Pulse and El Paso are seared into our history, but Donald Trump won’t do anything to address this crisis. He will only do what corporate gun companies ask of him.”
This isn’t the first time former President Trump has shown indifference to school shootings or gun violence. After a school shooting in Perry, Iowa, he told Iowans school shootings are something people have to “get over.” His running mate, Senator JD Vance, has called them a “fact of life” and said we need to “make the doors lock better” at schools. During former President Trump’s address to the NRA, he bragged about “doing nothing” on guns.
KEY EXCERPTS:
JESÚS GONZÁLEZ: With respect, could you explain your gun control policy to the parents of the victims of school shootings”
TRUMP: We have a Second Amendment and a right to bear arms, essentially. And I’m very strongly an advocate of that, I think you need that, I think that if you ever tried to get rid of it, you wouldn’t be able to do it. You wouldn’t be able to take away the guns because people need that for security, they need it for entertainment and for sports and other things.
But they also in many cases need it for protection. If you have a house out in the country or you’re in a little bit of a rough area or in a very rough area and the bad guy- let’s call him- has a gun. If you don’t have a gun you are finished, you have no chance. So, you need them, you want to have a lot of good people have them, but if we didn’t have that you would see a crime rate that’s crazy.
[…]
But if you ever did, if you ever pass something, she wants to take everybody’s gun away, you know she’s always wanted that. That’s because it’s what she wants. She wants to take everybody’s gun. You know who the ones who will never give their guns up? The bad guys. The bad guys not giving up the guns. So that’s what we have, we want safety, we want security, but you have to still adhere to the second amendment. Thank you, great question.
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