Posted on 03/27/2023 5:43:45 PM PDT by Drew68
UPDATE: I did not know about the Nashville school shooting until after I sent out this story. I did not intend to make a political statement of any kind about the victims from the Covenant School. I pray for the families and the school.
As president, Donald Trump privately pushed for banning AR-15-type rifles, according to a new report. Trump was — and is — a big defender of Second Amendment rights. So the new revelation is surprising that he tried to renew the “assault weapon” ban during his first two years in office.
The news about Trump is buried in a lengthy story in The Washington Post on Monday about AR-15 style rifles. The report says he tried multiple times in 2018 and 2019 to get support for a federal “assault-weapon” ban.
“I don’t know why anyone needs an AR-15,” Trump told aides as he flew on Marine One to the White House in August 2019, according to a person who heard his comments. As one former official put it in describing the real estate developer turned politician, “His reflexes were a New York liberal on guns. He doesn’t have knee-jerk conservative reflexes.” But Trump was also petrified of the NRA and others taking him on, former advisers said, and heard from a number of advisers that it would be unpopular. Trump ultimately stopped entertaining the idea of working with Democrats on gun control later that year, when he was caught in a scandal over his now-infamous phone call with Ukraine’s president. “F--- it, I’m not going to work with them on anything. They’re f---ing impeaching me,” Trump said in one Oval Office meeting, according to a participant.""In the summer of 2019, after back-to-back mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso involving an AR-15-style pistol and an AKM-style rifle, Trump told aides that he wanted to ban AR-15s, according to people present for the statements.
The AR-15 is a style of rifle. The FBI crime statistics for 2021 show there were 11,628 people killed by guns, and 447 of them were by rifles of any type. The bureau does not track the style of the rifle.
A spokesman for Trump, who is running for reelection in 2024, did not deny the remarks. From The Post:
"Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, did not respond to detailed findings in this article but said that “there had been no bigger defender of the Second Amendment than President Trump.” He said that Trump had offered other proposals after mass shootings, such as adding security guards to schools and allowing teachers who are licensed to carry a weapon to do so."
Trump’s bipartisan gun control
While this reporting from The Post is from anonymous sources, it lines up with Trump’s public comment in 2018 in a bipartisan White House meeting on gun control measures after the horrific school mass shooting in Parkland, FL.
Trump told Sen. Dianne Feinstein in a live TV meeting that he would look at her “assault weapon” ban bill. It caused an uproar with the pro-gun groups that helped get him elected. I cued up this video to watch him tell her:
NRA protest
The Post reported this meeting and one other in more detail:
He mentioned it on live television to one of the Senate’s most vocal gun-control backers, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and in a private meeting with Parkland families. His comments rattled NRA officials and some of his own advisers. NRA representatives later warned Trump against taking action. “They came up here and said to him, the base is going to blow you up,” according to a former official who sat in during a series of meetings with the NRA. They, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private interactions.""Shortly after Parkland, President Donald Trump repeatedly floated the idea of supporting a new assault weapons ban.
Trump supported the NRA in the same 2018 meeting with Feinstein and others (transcript here): "I’m a fan of the NRA. I mean, there’s no bigger fan. I’m a big fan of the NRA. They want to do it. These are great people. These are great patriots. They love our country. But that doesn’t mean we have to agree on everything."
The not agreeing on everything is a reference to the issue of raising the federal minimum age for owning a gun from 18 to 21 years old.
In his book The America We Deserve, published in 2000:
“I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun.”
Why does anyone “need” an AR-15?
The 2nd Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights.
It is not part of the Bill of Needs!
I don’t want to find out why I need an AR-15. Rather have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
“assault weapons” is a liberal made-up term.
“according to people present for the statements”
This is little more than a political hit job.
Completely unsourced.
You should be ashamed of yourself.
Suspiciously being reported now.
Thumbs up. They’ve been trying to separate Trump’s voters from Trump for over seven years. It will take a heck of a lot more than a fake WAPO story to do it.
Whatever
His first reaction was rebuffed and became an informed decision
They need an AR-15 for the same reason they need a Stormy.
JUst one more . . .
Should we ban cars and doctors as they kill many more times the people that guns do.
Forget the WP. This has been corroborated. Emily said so!
Exactly. They’d be calling him a RINO and comparing him to Mittens. We’re Trump to be elected to President again (he won’t), he’d eventually ban a lot of guns. New York gonna New York.
Emily Miller She also worked as deputy press secretary for Secretaries of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and as communications director for House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. In August 2020, Miller, who had no previous science or medical experience, was appointed as Assistant Commissioner for Media Affairs for the Food and Drug Administration, including being their top spokesperson, a role usually performed by non-political civil servants.[13] Two weeks later, she was dismissed from the position abruptly, reportedly due to repeated clashes with the Agency's staff and a lack of aptitude for communicating in the medical and scientific field. "“I don’t know why anyone needs an AR-15,” Trump told aides as he flew on Marine One to the White House in August 2019, -->> according to a person who heard his comments.<<-- -->> While this reporting from The Post is from anonymous sources,<<-- it lines up with Trump’s public comment in 2018 in a bipartisan White House meeting on gun control measures after the horrific school mass shooting in Parkland, FL.
PASS - name names or it is rumor
you’re full of sh*t
and a way better option.
I wish I had your writing skills. You put together a very cogent view of the problems that America First faces: the swamp—the Uniparty and their allies in media—have ways of deceiving, manipulating and confusing the voting public, including those on our side who should know better; and rather than swallow the pablum, we should spit it back in their faces.
Nice work researching.
Those who know Trump know Trump is no Second Amendment bogeyman.
Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesman, did not respond to detailed findings in this article but said that “there had been no bigger defender of the Second Amendment than President Trump.” He said that Trump had offered other proposals after mass shootings, such as adding security guards to schools and allowing teachers who are licensed to carry a weapon to do so.
Here's a more objective and reputable assessment and source:
I am not disputing what you say. I am merely pointing out that the Brits did not employ anything like our rifled long guns (i.e., the Kentucky Long Rifle; the Pennsylvania Rifle; they are the same gun). We also employed hit-and-run tactics far more than the Brits did (and in such actions the more precise rifled barrel proved its worth) in addition to the more common massed rank formations.
Here is a history of the rifle. Very interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_rifle
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