Trump pledges loyalty to the gun lobby
Former US President Donald Trump says mass shootings are not “a gun problem” as he vows to defend and expand gun owners' rights in a speech to the main American gun lobby’s annual meeting.
"I was proud to be the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president you've ever had in the White House," Trump said to an audience at the National Rifle Association's meeting on Friday in Indianapolis.
"And with your support in 2024, I will be your loyal friend and fearless champion once again as the 47th president of the United States,” Trump added.
A plethora of 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls and possible candidates rushed to pledge their loyalty to the NRA before several thousand gun-rights activists in a hall at the convention center against the backdrop of recent mass shootings in Tennessee and Kentucky,
The Republicans ridiculed at the notion that gun and ammunition restrictions would reduce violence.
"It is a scandal and a tragedy that year after year, Democrats in Washington continue to hold commonsense school safety measures hostage to their radical gun control agenda, which, in virtually all cases, would do nothing to prevent attacks by demented and disturbed individuals," Trump said.
"This is not a gun problem," he added, as he batted cleanup for a long list of Republican officials and office seekers. "This is a mental health problem, this is a social problem, this is a cultural problem, this is a spiritual problem."
Kentucky and Tennessee political leaders have called for tighter controls on guns, including tougher laws preventing people in crisis from accessing firearms, after two mass shootings killed 11 people in Louisville and Nashville.
A bank employee shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. On March 27, three 9-year-olds and three staff members were killed at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student.
Any person 21 or older who is eligible to legally possess a firearm can carry a concealed deadly weapon, according to Kentucky State Police.
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