Former President Donald Trump and a slate of other GOP big names repeated familiar party positions on gun policy, with some attempting to address recent mass shootings that have rocked the nation.
Republican presidential candidates and those weighing White House bids addressed their base at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting on Friday, testing their sales pitches on a mostly receptive audience while burnishing their Second Amendment credentials.
Former President Donald Trump headlined the leadership forum at the event in Indianapolis, which saw a field of Republicans repeat familiar party stances on gun rights. Several attempted to address recent mass shootings, including a shooting at a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, last month that left three young children and three adults dead.
But at other times,issues of concern to GOP voters – including the southern border, the economy and culture wars – also made their way into many of the speakers’ remarks.
Trump delivered a version of his typical stump speech with a heavy focus on gun issues and plenty of tangents – including an extended, off-script thread on the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan.
The former president, who announced his 2024 bid last year, trotted out grievances and highlighted pro-gun measures taken by his administration, with promises of more should he be elected next year.
“I promise you this, with me at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., no one will lay a finger on your firearms,” Trump told the crowd.
Trump acknowledged the recent school shooting roughly 40 minutes into his speech.
“Today we wrap those beautiful families with our love and we lift them up in our prayers,” he said. He called for more mental health services, armed personnel and teachers in schools, and to ensure “certain death” for perpetrators of mass shootings – a common theme of the afternoon.
And Trump also waded into culture wars by pledging to move forward on research looking into whether hormone therapies for transgender people increase mental health issues. The shooter in the Covenant Day massacre was reportedly transgender, and some conservatives have seized on the fact, wrapping it into their escalating fight on gender issues although there’s been no suggestion from the scientific community that transgender people are more prone to commit mass shootings.
Trump similarly suggested that genetically modified cannabis was inspiring psychotic breaks that led to mass shootings, although he did not cite any science that would support the claim.