DALLAS — Former President Donald Trump urged gun owners to vote in the 2024 election as he addressed thousands of members of the National Rifle Association, which officially endorsed him just before Mr. Trump took the stage at their annual meeting in Texas on Saturday.
“We’ve got to get gun owners to vote,” Mr. Trump said a day after campaigning in Minnesota in the midst of his criminal hush money trial. “I think you’re a rebellious bunch. But let’s be rebellious and vote this time.”
Mr. Trump, in his speech, said the Second Amendment “is very much on the ballot” in November, alleging that, if Democratic President Joe Biden “gets four more years they are coming for your guns, 100% certain. Crooked Joe has a 40-year-record of trying to rip firearms out of the hands of law-abiding citizens.”
The Biden administration has taken a number of steps to try to combat gun violence, including a new rule that aims to close a loophole that has allowed tens of thousands of guns to be sold every year by unlicensed dealers who do not perform background checks to ensure the potential buyer is not legally prohibited from having a firearm.
Mr. Trump has pledged to continue to defend the Second Amendment, which he claims is “under siege,” and has called himself “the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House” as the United States faces record numbers of deaths due to mass shootings. Last year ended with 42 mass killings and 217 deaths, making it one of the deadliest years on record.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has been criticized by Mr. Biden, specifically for remarks that Mr. Trump made this year after a school shooting in Iowa. Mr. Trump called the incident “very terrible” only to later say that “we have to get over it. We have to move forward.”
Speaking Friday in Minnesota, Mr. Trump said: “You know, it’s an amazing thing. People that have guns, people that legitimately have guns, they love guns and they use guns for the right purpose, but they tend to vote very little and yet they have to vote for us. There’s nobody else to vote for because the Democrats want to take their guns away and they will take their guns away.”
He added, “That’s why I’m going to be talking to the NRA tomorrow to say, ‘You gotta get out and vote.’ ”
Mr. Biden has made curtailing gun violence a major part of his administration and reelection campaign, creating the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention overseen by Vice President Kamala Harris. Mr. Biden also has urged Congress to ban so-called assault weapons — something Democrats shied from even just a few years ago.
Ms. Harris said in a statement before Mr. Trump’s NRA appearance that “at a time when guns are the number one cause of death for children and teens in America, Donald Trump is catering to the gun lobby and threatening to make the crisis worse if reelected.” She said she and Mr. Biden "will continue to take on the gun lobby to keep Americans safe, while Donald Trump will continue to sacrifice our kids’ and communities’ safety to keep these special interests happy.”
When Mr. Trump was president, there were moments when he pledged to strengthen gun laws. After a high school mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., that killed 17 people and wounded 17 others, Mr. Trump told survivors and family members that he would be “very strong on background checks.” He claimed he would stand up to the NRA but later he backpedaled, saying there was “not much political support.”
Prominent gun safety groups that have endorsed Mr. Biden were planning to demonstrate near the convention center in Dallas where the gun lobby’s annual forum was being held.
While Mr. Trump sees strong support in Texas, Democrats in the state think they have a chance to flip a Senate seat in November with U.S. Rep. Colin Allred leading an underdog campaign to unseat Republican Ted Cruz. No Democrat has won a statewide office in Texas in 30 years, the longest streak of its kind in the country.
First Published: May 18, 2024, 7:25 p.m.
Updated: May 18, 2024, 11:17 p.m.
